BOYCIE is having a bit of bother. Actor John Challis made a special appearance at a Herefordshire Council planning meeting to try to stop "them next door" from building a fence.

Mr Challis, from Wigmore Abbey, in the county, made Boycie an iconic figure in the hit comedy Only Fools And Horses. But he was all business when he had a northern area planning sub-committee as his stage.

Taking his cue from the chairman, Mr Challis had three minutes to convince members that a fence the care home for children next door wanted to build would blight his life - and that of other neighbours.

The application involved removing an unauthorised boundary fence that the home had already put up and replacing it with something more permanent, standing at about two metres high.

Mr Challis covered issues from the invasion of privacy to car parking problems in his three-minute speech.

Area councillor Olwyn Barnett had a supporting role saying that the application had caused controversy in the community where many were already unhappy at conversions made to the cottage since it became a care home last year.

But Mr Challis couldn't win over his audience.

Despite some sympathy with the objectors, councillors gave the fence the go-ahead when told that that, on the merits of the application in front of them, their hands were effectively tied.