A Cotswold homeowner alleges that his property’s value plummeted by £600,000 after the local council erected unsightly scaffolding to prevent a nearby car park from collapsing onto his land.
Andrew Ewart-James, 79, has called his charming cottage in South Woodchester home for nearly half a century. He expressed concerns to the council back in 1986 about a potentially hazardous retaining wall in his garden. However, it wasn’t until 2019 that emergency scaffolding was put up.
Since then, the scaffolding has remained in place for seven years, rendering the property unsellable and causing significant distress for Mr. Ewart-James.
“I feel trapped,” he shared with the Daily Mail. “I am a prisoner in my own home. It’s an endless ordeal.”
He added, “I worry I won’t live to see this resolved. I want this issue addressed before I pass away or need to move into a care facility.”
‘I fear I will die before this gets sorted. I want it sorted before I die or have to go in a home.
‘It’s become unsellable. I think it’d be worth £1 million to £1.25 million if it did not have the wall issue. It’s half that now.
‘That’s £600,000 gone. All because of their incompetence.’
Pictured: The scaffolding, which is visible as soon as Mr Ewart-James opens his back door
Pictured: Andrew Ewart-James, 79, who has lived in his Cotswold home for 49 years
Pictured: Million-pound homes in the Gloucestershire village of South Woodchester
Despite repeated pleas to Shroud District Council to find a long-term solution, the scaffolding has been kept in place at a cost of £368-a-week to maintain it.
‘It’s crazy that £100,000 of our money is being used on this. The council has not done a proper job. It’s like they don’t care about me,’ he added.
‘I’ve had an engineer around who said that it could collapse at any point, and then come into my kitchen.
‘It’s still moving. I fear one day it will collapse. It could happen at any moment.’
The widower bought Home Farm in the Gloucestershire village of South Woodchester in 1977 and had been living with a a problematic retaining wall in his garden for decades.
He is desperate to sell and downsize but says the ‘horrific’ situation has seen £600,000 wiped off his property’s value.
‘It is ruining the value of my house. We worked hard all our lives. Who would live here though with all of this?,’ he said.
Mr Ewart-James also insisted it is ‘too dangerous’ to spend significant time in his garden as it is dominated by the scaffolding, which is visible as soon as he opens his back door.
He added: ‘We moved here, partly because of some of the most amazing views out the back you can imagine. It’s a stunning house and location.
‘But I have a building site outside my kitchen and in my garden. It’s just crazy. I’d love to relax in my garden. But it’s far-from relaxing. I don’t go near the scaffolding, god only knows what could happen.’
He has now issued a High Court proceeding against Stroud District Council over the wall.
His wife died recently and he is desperate to get the property sold so he can move into a smaller home and his children can get their inheritance.
He added: ‘If only they had listened to my warnings over the years. It started in 1986. I don’t see it ending anytime soon. That bill will go up and up and up.
‘Think of what that could fund? It’s like a library for just one year. But they have spent it on scaffolding.
‘What annoys me as well is they tell everyone else I am being closely informed. But I am not. They do not tell me anything.
‘I’m in the dark. All they want to do is the cheapest job possible. They do not seem interested in fixing it.
‘When we bought the home in 1977 there were only two cars in the car park – but now there are seven to eight.
‘We warned them. There were problems quite early on. It was not built for a council car park like that. This is their fault.
‘My wife died and I don’t want to live in this home on my own. We were here for 47 years and I want to sell it now.
The car park being supported by the scaffolding, which is being paid for with taxpayer money
‘I want to live in a smaller home and give my children the share they are entitled to under their mother’s estate.
‘But the council incompetence is stopping that. It really is not fair. Who in their right mind would live here when it looks like this?’
Andrew said his surveyor told him in 1977 there was a large retaining wall with a 12ft drop.
The surveyor said at the time that the structure was fine but ‘retaining walls nearly always cause problems’.
In 1986, he said he first told the council.
He said: ‘In 1986, we had a structural survey specifically of the wall because we noticed cracks developing. They weren’t following the outline.
‘The cracks were going through the bricks. We knew we had a problem.
‘We have had to live through this problem since 1986 when we first notified the council there was an issue.
A spokesperson for Stroud District Council said: ‘Stroud District Council is committed to progressing this project as quickly as possible. Delays arose in late 2024 due to difficulties agreeing design details with Mr Ewart-James’ structural engineer. To resolve this, we appointed an independent Party Wall surveyor, as did Mr Ewart-James.
‘By March 2025, proposals were agreed. We are in the process of agreeing a licence to facilitate the works with Mr Ewart-James. Once the licence completes, we will move swiftly to appoint contractors and schedule works.’
