This is now going off topic.
Re my garden wall, they were only three things possible, one: whoever shopped us was almost certainly some other neighbour, was a council member or new somebody!
Two: the properties are in a conversation area or three: 12yrs earlier there used to be a public footpath at the bottom of the gardens that used to run through (Not alongside) all walls of every bodies gardens. This footpath was diverted 12yrs earlier and no longer exists. The council on this occasion never did give good reason after much discussion etc.
Here's an other one in a different county again, in a conservation area. existing 2.8mtr high boundary wall onto a public footpath that was falling down. I wanted to demolish the wall and replace it and build a 6mtr X 4mtr extension "Sunroom" behind it in the front garden. No brainer I thought i'll need planning for the sunroom and the wall replacement shouldn't be a problem at all. No, not at all. On submitting a "Do I need Planning Permission" application form for the sun room, the council said:
You need to apply for planning permission to replace the wall "BEFORE" you demolish it, then I need to apply for a demolition order to commence. I will need to apply for a temporary footpath closure notice before work starts and you don't need planning permission for the sunroom but i'll have to work to building regs for both.
In a quite corner I asked someone what would happen if one stormy night the wall should accidently over on its own! the chaps reply was: normally I would be allowed to simply build like for like without planning, however because we now know that your planning on replacing it its in my best interest to make sure it doesn't fall over on its own. A councilman actually visited a few days later unannounced and decided to close the footpath immediately and have the wall demolished and removed at there expense, I was allowed to start rebuilding immediately afterwards with permissive planning approval at no expense to me but still had to work to building regs.
This is now going off topic - It's not in the best interest of the original query for me to continue to ramble, i'll not be contributing any further here.