GLASGOW residents have been ordered to get planning permission - for gates on their back lanes they put up to keep neds out.

GLASGOW residents have been ordered to get planning permission - for gates on their back lanes they put up to keep neds out.

The 7ft gates were erected in Cardonald to stop teenage vandals who were terrorising the neighbourhood.

Residents say they have enjoyed "peace and tranquillity" since they went up - but now Glasgow City Council has written saying the gates were put up without planning permission.

A letter from the planning department to residents' spokeswoman Pat Bermingham said: "A planning application requires to be made."

It added that if permission was granted, a stopping-up order would also be needed to close it off the back lane.

The move comes after the Evening Times last month highlighted the residents' campaign to stop yobs making their lives a misery.

Mrs Bermingham, of Hillington Park Circus, said: "If the council attempts to make us take the gates down there will be an absolute riot.

"That lane is private, it is owned by the residents. When we found that out I asked the council if it would take it over and maintain it. The answer I got was politely get lost."

Mrs Bermingham said youths were using the lane for underage drinking, graffiti, drug taking and sex. She said they were running through gardens to escape the police.

She added: "Since we put up the gates it has been so quiet - it is like chalk and cheese. There would be an uproar if we had to take them down."

Around 60 residents on Invergyle Drive, Wedderlea Drive and Hillington Park Circus have houses which back on to the lane.

All have keys for the gates as do the refuse collectors. There are also agreements in place to allow any workmen into the lane if needed.

Councillor Alistair Watson said he was prepared to stand up for the residents. He said: "I told them to do it in the first place. The neds were ripping up property in that lane.

"I won't allow the council to use a bureaucratic piece of legislation to make people's lives a misery."

Mr Watson said a retrospective planning permission might have to be made.