Petrol station wall falls on to garden

"That would have been my lot," Donald, 76, told the Observer this week.

He went out on Monday afternoon with wife Jo and when the couple returned to their home in Barnhorn Road, Little Common, they were stunned by devastation caused to their property.

They say workmen dismantling the Texaco petrol station and garage nearby left behind two freestanding walls when planning permission was refused and further building work abandoned.

The workshop wall adjacent to Donald's garden collapsed suddenly this week causing "unbelievable" damage.

He said: "It is now destroyed, the shed. But when I saw it, I thought - that would have been my lot."

Jo, 75, said: "I died - because we had just come back from an afternoon out. I won't repeat what I said because it would not be very good, especially for my blood pressure."

The couple say that work pulling down the workshop began last October and had already caused problems.

The petrol station itself was taken down 18 months ago.