A ROW has broken out between a successful estate agent in Whitchurch and Shropshire Council over who owns the deeds to a shed.

Saul Mellor, from Get Moving , owns 29 High Street and this week received planning permission to turn a shed into a hot/cold drinks and snack shed, which left him delighted.

But on Monday he received an email from Shropshire Council stating that work on the shed must not start as its estates team believes tenancy belongs to the authority.

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But Mr Mellor says he has the deeds to the property and wants the situation resolved as soon as possible, with work set to start as early as next week.

“As soon as we bought that property we said that we believed we owned that shed,” he said.

“We said we had some plans for it in the new year, which is the shack, and a timescale and they were fine with that.

“Whitchurch Town Council removed the tables from in there and a few bits of electric which will need someone to sort out and they discovered a main wire for the street lights.

“They emailed Shropshire Council to run it by them and then we got the email that I put on our Facebook page which is them trying to claim ownership over it.

“I said to them that some of these wires are going to be difficult to move and I’ve known that for a long time.

“But I’m not unreasonable and we said we will put them together and we can re-locate the electricity box to the outside with them.

“It’s taken the shine off getting the planning permission a little bit – we’re not doing this for the money as it’s only a shack and it’s not going to make loads.

“But if we own something, we want it to the best it can be because it’s a pride thing.

“Plus it’s nice to do something nice in the town, something extra for us and keeps it interesting but it’s taken the shine off it.

“I don’t know where we’re going to go with this, whether they’re going to try to take us to court and cost each other £50,000 just fighting over a shed.”

Mr Mellor admitted he is hoping for a successful outcome.

He added: “Hopefully they just say ‘it’s yours, you can have it’ – it’s as simple as that.

“Helen Morgan has been great too with some back and forth emails and she has gone to the council asking for evidence to support what they’re saying.”

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A spokesman for Shropshire Council said it believes the deeds are an error and wishes to investigate further.

They said: “We can see that the ‘shed’ is on Mr Mellor’s title deeds but we believe this may have been an error and we’re currently investigating.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for any work to begin until these investigations are complete.”