MALVERN Town councillors have opted to wait until after the May elections before deciding whether to spend £20,000 on a new boundary fence for council land at Greenfields Road.

There is no money in the current budget to pay for the work and the funds would have to come from the council's reserves.

Members of the council's operations committee were told at a meeting that there had been a problem with neighbouring householders encroaching on to the council's land to extend their gardens.

The council had written to the homeowners giving them three months to get off the land or the council would take further action.

Town clerk Richard Chapman said they all took down their fences but the council would have to clear the area of debris like bricks and pieces of corrugated iron left by the encroaching homeowners.

The committee was recommended to erect a new three-metre high weld mesh fence to replace the existing one to discourage any further encroachments in the future.

The committee decided to defer the issue until after the new council is installed.