A MAN who is furious about houses being built just feet from his back window has been warned he may face legal action over comments he has painted on his wall.

Simon Edwards thought he had found an ideal peaceful village home when he moved into his cottage at Treroosel Road, St Teath, in 2003.

However, work has now begun on two houses behind his property which he says will block the light and view for him and neighbouring cottages. Mr Edwards, who works as a self-employed courier, has told the developer in big white letters: "No privacy, no light, no peace, no view".

However, a spokeswoman for the developers, Camel Builders of Wadebridge, said that in 2005, before planning permission was granted for the houses, they had offered Mr Edwards and others in the row a three-metre strip of land behind their cottages, free of charge, which they could use as a back garden.

The spokeswoman said none of them had replied and, although they had continued to oppose the development, the firm was granted planning permission in 2006.

"We feel that we did all we could to meet their objections," she said.

Unfair

Yesterday, the managing director of Camel Builders, Paul Miskowicz, sent a letter to Mr Edwards warning him that he was considering legal action over the large white message on the wall overlooking the new development.

"We believe your actions now are unjust and unfair and request that you remove your message as it can only cause ill feeling with ourselves and other residents of The Meadows.

"We have taken legal advice but do not wish to go down this route if we do not have to."

Mr Edwards and his neighbours looked out on to a field until planning permission was granted for an estate of about 40 new houses.

They did not object to those properties as they were expecting the field to be developed, but the application which worried them was for two houses on a small strip of land at the back of their properties.

The houses were just a few yards from their windows.

Mr Edwards, 49, who moved into the house in 2003 with his partner Debbie and her daughter Aimee, was shocked when building work started.

"The development comes right up to my wall, directly in front of my kitchen window. It is intrusive, very oppressive. If future owners are pruning their roses they will be looking right into our window.

"I don't know how they got planning permission for it. I feel I have been let down by the system.

"I feel I am being driven out of my own home. It has become very stressful for me and I feel my freedom of speech is being threatened.

"I have considered adding a line about what I think about the planners who allowed this. I feel the objections of myself and my neighbours were ignored."