A SOUTHAMPTON businessman has painted his shop pink and white after a legal wrangle with council chiefs over who owns a strip of land made him see red.

Jason Fellner, 41, claims council bosses used "spiteful" tactics to resolve the complex dispute over who owns the land which borders Mr Fellner's shop and the Millennium Community Garden in Woolston.

The dispute over the land measuring just 2ft wide by 11ft long has cost Mr Fellner about £9,000 in legal fees.

At one point, Mr Fellner took a road drill to the foundations of a sign put up on the community garden because he claimed it encroached on to the land which he said was his.

The saga began more than two years ago when Mr Fellner bought his £20,000 shop in Bridge Road where he intended to open an antique business.

But he was angered when he found that volunteers who built the community garden had put up a sign on land near to his shop which he says damaged the foundations.

He told the Daily Echo that he had discovered through examining his title deeds that the land where the sign was on belonged to him.

He added: "It became a point of principle. They smashed up my foundations."

The dispute over the land ownership eventually led to Southampton's County Court where the case was settled in April this year.

But Mr Fellner said that the long-running argument between him and the council over the the land had cost taxpayers thousands of pounds.

He added: "I got so frustrated with this I have bought another shop. The council have got so much money to waste. They have made life so difficult for me that I just don't want to know any more."