Iceman Gerwyn Price gets green light to build practice room

Darts player Gerwyn Price has won the dispute with his neighbour over the building of a practice room in his back garden

Darts player Gerwyn Price has been granted permission to continue building a practice room in his garden, despite objections from his neighbour.

Jeffrey Smith claimed the works had caused "major disruption" and £5,000 of damage to a retaining wall which was at "serious risk of collapse".

The double Grand Slam of Darts winner, known as The Iceman, dismissed the claims as "garbage".

A Caerphilly planning committee approved the plans on Wednesday.

'Crying on a weekly basis'

Mr Smith, whose 89-year-old mother lives next door to Mr Price's house in Markham, said it would cost thousands to repair the wall and that it had moved five inches.

"My mother has lived at the property for 60 years and never had any trouble," he said.

"But since this has happened, I have had to endure my mother crying on a weekly basis."

He accused the PDC World Darts Championship semi-finalist of showing "total disregard" to his mother's property and boundary wall. He also claimed she had to put up with "late night drinking and people urinating over the wall."

Jeffrey Smith claims the building work has caused more than £5,000 of damage to a retaining wall

But the accusations were refuted by Mr Price, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"This whole debate is not about the outhouse, it is about the wall which I said I would replace," he said.

"As for the issues about noise, it is not true. I use this for my livelihood as a practice room."

Planning officers advised councillors that the dispute over the boundary wall was a civil matter covered by separate laws.

They approved the plans, which include a 1.8m-high fence to protect privacy.