A tussle over a back garden trellis has seen a woman win an appeal against her local council.

The dispute began last year when Geraldine Roberts put up a wooden screen on top of a fence in her back garden, at her home on Mawkin Green in Bradwell.

At the time, she felt she was being "disturbed, overlooked and suffering from a loss of privacy" from neighbouring children playing on a slide to the rear of her own back garden.

Ms Roberts, who is in her 70s, applied to Great Yarmouth Borough Council to retain the trellis which had already been erected on top of the existing two-metre high fence.

But her neighbours objected, calling it "an eyesore" which "obstruct[s] the view of our children who are only playing in their garden... looking at planes flying by, not being rude or naughty".

Despite the objection, planners approved the application - but this was not the end of the saga.

As part of the planning permission, the council had imposed a three-year time-limit on the trellis.

The condition said this period "should be sufficient to allow both neighbours to continue enjoy the benefits of their gardens whilst the slide is in use".

Ms Roberts appealed the condition to the Planning Inspectorate, a government agency which can overturn decisions where it thinks councils have gone against planning law. 

She said the time limit was "unreasonable" and that she had "no control over the slide" and "how long it would remain or whether it might be replaced with some other item of play equipment of equal or greater height".

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Her appeal has been granted. 

Terrence Kemmann-Lane, planning inspector, said there was no reason to suggest the effect of the trellis would increase after three years, and the condition was therefore unreasonable and unnecessary.

In her appeal letter, Ms Roberts had said she put the trellis up after explaining to her neighbour the problems she was having with his children "invading" her privacy.

The whole process has been "time-consuming, detrimental to my health and wellbeing all to gain privacy in my own home", she added.