A PLANNING battle in a Hampshire village has ended in victory for the applicant.

Dennis Goddard, of May Crescent in Holbury, lodged an appeal after New Forest District Council rejected his retrospective application to replace a wooden fence with a brick wall.

Now government-appointed planning inspector Andrew Tucker has quashed the council's decision.

Mr Tucker's report says: "Although the brick wall is prominent, it only forms part of the appeal property’s road-facing boundary.

"The hedges that make up the plot’s remaining road facing boundary are lower than the wall.

"They give the rest of the plot a more open appearance, lessening the impact of the wall to the extent that it cannot be considered over dominant or incongruous."