A PENSIONER and his neighbour armed themselves with hosepipes and squared up when a long-running land dispute boiled over on their shared driveway.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Merryck Johnson told Andrew Moore, 67, he would be "lucky to see 68" and that he would be "waiting for an ambulance" as they confronted each other in Kenilworth Drive, Clitheroe.

Mr Moore had dug a hole to re-erect a dividing fence after surveyors brought in as a result of civil proceedings had agreed the boundary line.

But his disgruntled neighbour filled the hole with cement and magistrates viewing CCTV footage from a camera set up by Mr Moore saw the two men armed with hosepipes facing each other across the dividing line.

Mr Johnson, 50, failed to appear in court to answer a summons for using threatening behaviour. The case against the HGV driver was proved in his absence and he was fined £200 and ordered to pay £90 costs.

Mr Moore, a retired civil servant, told the court the trouble between him and his next-door neighbour went back four years.

He said his neighbour was trying to claim more of the driveway that ran between their houses than he was entitled to and their had been proceedings in the County Court which had eventually led to the boundary being established and agreed.

The offence of threatening behaviour went back to July last year when Mr Moore said surveyors instructed by both sides in the civil proceedings had agreed where the boundary should be.

"I regarded that as grounds for re-erecting the fence that Mr Johnson had taken down on several occasions," said Mr Moore.

He told of the confrontation that followed and said he had been very nervous.

"It was not the first time that he had threatened me, he's very unpredictable and I am never sure if something is going to happen," said Mr Moore. "I still feel threatened by him."

After the case, Mr Moore said: "My wife and I have been very determined to do this, at some cost to our health, and I think we can be justly proud of the outcome. It may well deter him from treating someone else in a similar fashion."

Civil court proceedings were launched by Mr Moore in July 1999 saying the boundary based on original 1960s plans was not being respected.

The civil dispute was settled last month at Blackburn County Court when Mr Johnson was ordered to pay a £3,500 settlement.

He said the dispute had cost him more than £7,000 in legal fees and he was now trying to sell the property.