A long-standing dispute between Brooke-Alvinston neighbours will have to be solved by the courts. And it has lead the municipality to consider getting out of the fence dispute solving market.

Robert McVicar recently went to Brooke-Alvinston council to complain the municipality was not enforcing the ruling of the Fence Viewers – a group of people appointed by the municipality to solve disputes locally. McVicar says not only did the neighbour build the fence wrong, he also moved it to cut off three-acres of his land.

“The fence is on the wrong side of the creek as to what it used to be…there was never a surveyors map to put it on the other side,” he recently told council. “How did it get there and why is it on the wrong side of the creek?”

Since the dispute had already been appealed, council said it had little authority to do anything else although McVicar felt the township should make the neighbour rebuild the fence properly.

“We can’t solve the problem I don’t know where the boundary is,” Mayor Don McGugan told him adding McVicar should hire a surveyor and then take the matter to court.

After McVicar had left, council discussed getting out of the fence viewing business.

It isn’t required by the province and many municipalities no longer provide the service because it can be difficult to solve the neighbour on neighbour disagreements.

Council is expected to approve the move at its next meeting.