RESIDENTS have lost their battle to get a Colne garage to put up a fence to screen them from the building.

But the owner of the showroom said he would plant trees in October to provide the privacy residents have been calling for.

Terry Noon, 66, of Burnley Road, who lives next door to Simpson's Skoda dealership, in Knotts Lane, claims the garage agreed to put up a fence when it was granted planning permission to make alterations more than a year ago.

But the owner, Neil Simpson, said a fence was not part of the conditions. He said landscaping in the form of mature trees and shrubs was, though.

A crisis meeting between residents in Burnley Road and Mr Simpson was held at Colne Town Hall last night to try and resolve the argument.

Mr Noon again urged the garage to honour the agreement he claims they made to put up a fence to safeguard residents' privacy from customers who could see into his garden.

At a recent meeting of the Colne committee, local councillors backed his fight for action. But last night residents were told by Mr Simpson that he had never agreed to build a fence.

He told them it would cost him £6,000 to do that and he could not afford it, but that he would honour the condition to provide screening by planting trees.

Mr Noon said: "He has refused to put up a fence. He said it was not agreed, but we say it was, so we can't go any further with it."

Mr Simpson said: "If Mr Noon had come to us in the first place to discuss this, rather than go straight to the council and the press, we would have been able to tell him that landscaping was what was accepted by the council when we were granted planning permission and that the planting would take place in October. We are obliged to provide this landscaping and this will achieve what he wants in terms of screening."