A bemused OAP found his garden gate blocked by a chain-link fence in a bizarre row over a 90cm strip of land owned by his neighbour.<br /><br />David Breeze, 80, believes the barrier was built following a dispute over him crossing a small strip of land to reach a public footpath when leaving his back garden.<br /><br />Mr Breeze has regularly used the gate at the property in Reedham, Norfolk for the last 23 years.<br /><br />He said he had made attempts to contact the landowner, Chris Mutten, to ensure he was not trespassing.<br /><br />He uses the footpath, which runs east from Yareview Close to Cliff Close, to walk to the doctors surgery and post office as it cuts across a field connecting two halves of the village.<br /><br />The row comes as angry villagers have objected to a controversial plan to build 27 new homes in the field owned by Mr Mutten, who is also a parish councillor.<br /><br />In the latest twist over their dispute, Mr Breeze found his garden gate, which opens onto the footpath, had been blocked by a high chain-link fence two weeks ago.<br /><br />The grandad-of-four, who lives with his wife Helen, admits he does have to trespass to get to the path - but that the piece of land is just 90cm wide.<br /><br />He said: "I think the whole thing is petty - why would he do something like that?<br /><br />"I offered him a letter and a licence for me to walk across the land to use the footpath and I never heard anything back.<br /><br />"I accept I'm trespassing but I have offered a way to get round it legally. <br /><br />"I see him around the village and he waves and says hello. You never know what you're going to get until you speak to him.<br /><br />"People agree with me that the whole thing is petty and I even said to him: 'If I was you and heard what people had been saying about me, I would have cried'."<br /><br />Mr Breeze said the dispute has been accelerated by the fact that the footpath runs along the edge of a large field owned by Mr Mutten which has been earmarked for 27 new homes.<br /><br />The developers, Badger Building, want to re-route the footpath.<br /><br />The former building surveyor said: "I had no objections to the footpath and I put a gate in my fence to get to it five years ago. <br /><br />"My grandsons use it the most, to take their bikes out into the village.<br /><br />"Two years ago, two metal posts went up and I never heard anything else.<br /><br />"Then two weeks ago, someone put up a chain-link fence across it. I thought: 'This is silly'.<br /><br />"While I was away on holiday, someone came along and snipped the zip-ties and pushed it over - my neighbours didn't see who it was either.<br /><br />"I spoke to him and he said he's not going to put it back so I see it as a surrender. <br /><br />"The housing development will likely put a road through the middle of the estate and the footpath will become redundant which is a shame."<br /><br />Mr Breeze added that he would miss the comments made about the fence by people walking past and that he was glad his hedgehogs could still roam underneath the gap.<br /><br />He joked: "I have really enjoyed all the comments made when people walking past, it was a strange thing to see.
