IT is a battle that has been fought for the best part of two years.

Simon Garside, of Liversedge, wants Kirklees Council to fix a retaining wall bordering his home.

Tree damage has left the wall with a series of zig-zag cracks. And the 39-year-old fears it could collapse.

But council chiefs have refused to sort out the situation – even though they admit it is their wall.

The situation has been prolonged because of a wrangle over ownership.

Shortly after the tree was cut down, Mr Garside submitted a claim to the council for the damage caused to his wall.

The council sent out a surveyor, who agreed that the 35-metre long wall was in a very poor state of repair.

Mr Garside was asked to submit some builders’ quotes to get the wall repaired. He was told that the wall would have to be demolished and rebuilt – at a cost of around £25,000.

Mr Garside claims that the council then went quiet but in October 2009 he received a letter from its solicitors, saying that the authority owned the wall.

The letter explained that the council had purchased the land bordering his home in 1966 and so was responsible for its boundaries.

“They said that due to this I wasn’t entitled to pursue a claim and therefore the council had closed the file,’’ said Mr Garside.

“It was frustrating because I felt like I had been going round the houses. I thought I had finally been getting somewhere and then I was told there was nothing I could do because they owned the wall.”

The situation arose following the removal of a sycamore tree growing near to the warehouse manager’s home on Strawberry Bank.

The 15-metre tall tree was putting huge pressure on the retaining wall surrounding Mr Garside’s garden.

The land borders Sampson Grange, the former site of a care home, which was being demolished just after Mr Garside moved into his property.

Some trees remained but, concerned that the one nearest to his home would damage it if uprooted in poor weather, he asked the council to remove it.

Mr Garside had to enlist the help of his local councillor, Margaret Bates, and council workers came and removed the tree in March 2009.

He said: “I had been concerned that because it was such a big tree the roots would start to affect the foundations of my house.

“I could see that my side of the wall was being affected because cracks had formed. As the trunk had grown wider it had started to bow the wall.”

Mr Garside is especially concerned about the state of his wall as planning permission was recently granted to build flats on the Sampson Grange side, as part of an affordable homes scheme.

He said: “It seems crazy that these flats are being built yet they are not prepared to repair the wall – it could collapse and fall onto their land.

“The wall has got worse and I can put my hands through the cracks. I think I’ll wake up one morning to find it going down like a landslide.”

A Kirklees Council spokeswoman said: “Whilst the council accepts that it owns the wall it does not accept that repairing the damage should be at the council’s expense.

“It believes that the proximity of Mr Garside’s house and drive have caused the majority of the problem as they were constructed after the wall was built.”