A WAR veteran has been left distraught after his neighbour submitted ‘diabolical’ plans that will ruin the view from his garden.

Eighty-three-year-old Tom Jones has lived at his home in Ellesmere Road, Walton for 58 years.

The lawful development certificate application involves a two-storey extension at the back of owner Martin McCarthy’s home.

Mr Jones said: “When a law takes your rights away that is just not right. A man’s house is his castle.

“I served time in the Army as a conscript person – that was the Government you had. But now people can come and walk over me.”

An application for a lawful development certificate must be granted if the council is satisfied that the blueprints meet the criteria.

Mr Jones said the plans would spoil his view of back gardens and roads as he would now have to look at a 25ft wall.

“I told him (Mr McCarthy) that it was a diabolical thing to do. He has come from Widnes and said he had always wanted to live here but he has not had any thought for his neighbours,” he added.

Mr Jones contacted Clr Paul Kennedy (CON – Hatton, Stretton and Walton) to see if anything could be done to prevent the work going ahead.

Clr Kennedy said: “It is one of the things that central Government introduced to speed up the process (of planning applications) but sometimes the effects are negative.”

Marie Baird neighbours the other side of Mr McCarthy’s home and has lived in her property for 33 years.

She fears that her home would not be as attractive following the development.