RESIDENTS leapt to the defence of a community garden in Clifton when a landowner arrived unexpectedly and tried to fence part of it off.

Up to 40 people warned off three men who had arrived to erect a two-metre high fence around a section of Easter Garden, which is between Wesley Place and High Street, just off Blackboy Hill.

People living in the area say they have established the right to use the site as a garden over the years and insist the sloping plot full of plants is protected by planning laws.

But would-be property developer Sarjit Singh owns an L-shaped piece of land on the site after buying it at auction in 2008 and hopes to build two townhouses there.

The men made an attempt to board off his section of the garden at 9pm on Monday but neighbours spread the word about the work and moved into the street to stop the barrier being put up.

The attempt to erect the fence was then abandoned and Mr Singh, who is based in Enfield, London, has now been advised by the city council to outline his plans for the site. Ilse Hambrook, secretary of the Friends of Easter Garden, said she was pleased Mr Singh had been unable to block off part of the land, which has a right of way running through it.

She said: "This is not a simple case of 'I own the land so I can put a fence around it'.

"This land has a 14-year history of stop orders and secretary of state decisions. The council and police have told Mr Singh to go through the planning process in order to get anywhere.

"I doubt he will get planning permission on the land."

Mr Singh said residents should club together to pay £50,000 to purchase the garden.

He said: "If not, I have to board it up. It's my land and they are trespassing and they haven't got permission to use it. We are the owners and we can't go on it. They were stopping us from going on it.

"It already has planning permission from 1994 for two townhouses to go up there."

Council spokesman Pete Wood said: "An officer has been up to the site and had a meeting with the owner of this piece of land.

"He has agreed not to put up any fencing and instead submit details of what he wishes to do and we will go back through the history of this site.

"It may well be that he would need planning permission if he wished to put up fencing."