WARRING neighbours came to blows this week after months of dispute over a garden fence ended with two arrests.

Next door neighbours in Kingsley Road, Chippenham, each amassed a long list of complaints after the fence row spiralled out of control.

But it was the installation of a CCTV camera by one neighbour to view the rear of the other's house, that sparked off yet another row, angry calls to the police, and finally led to the arrests.

The long war of words began about a year ago. Both homes are owned by the Knightstone Housing Association and the gardens are divided by a wire fence.

Single mum Sarah Hicks put up a fence at her own expense on her side of the wire.

But she claims neighbours Victoria and Jason Wyatt removed the wire fence and put down gravel, which buckled the fence and spilled under it, and then built a rockery which damaged it further.

She complained to Knightstone, but Mr Wyatt told the association he had not built the rockery; it was already there when he moved in.

This led to bad feeling between the neighbours and a series of claims and counterclaims.

Ms Hicks alleges her neighbours sent her hate mail, shouted insults, poisoned flowers with washing up liquid, and chopped off the heads of her daughter Leesha's sunflowers in the garden.

She claimed Mr Wyatt threw animal bones into her garden, which she found particularly insulting because she is a vegetarian.

She was arrested by two women police officers on Monday afternoon on suspicion of harassment and taken to Chippenham police station.

She was detained for more then seven hours and locked in a cell for more than five of them.

"I just prayed and prayed, because I am a Christian," she said.

Mr and Mrs Wyatt, who put up the camera, say their lives have been made such a misery they are moving out and leaving Chippenham.

Mrs Wyatt, who has a young daughter, branded her home the House from Hell.

"We believe we are the third tenants to be driven out," she said.

"I understand she (Ms Hicks) will be evicted next week, but even so, we can't bear to live here any longer."

A woman who does not wish to be identified, who previously lived in their home, alleges she too suffered.

"All of a sudden Ms Hicks just seemed to turn against me and I didn't have a clue why. It was like a horror film slowly unfolding," she said.

"She would go out and leave her music playing loudly all night. Her boyfriends would walk up and down her garden staring at me through the windows and she reported me to the police countless times, claiming that my children made too much noise."

Ms Hicks, 28, a graduate with an honours degree in finance and accounting, claimed she never dared step out into her front garden alone for fear of insults from her neighbours.

She said she is angry at her arrest and feels her neighbours are to blame for everything that has happened.

Tension, however, escalated on Monday evening when Ms Hicks' boyfriend Malcolm Archer, infuriated by her arrest, accosted Mr Wyatt on the pavement outside the house and was himself arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm.

Both were released on police bail but Ms Hicks has to report back to the police station on Monday.

Liz Taylor, manager of Chippenham's Citizens Advice Bureau, said neighbour disputes of any description were very difficult to deal with.

"People get really wound up over the problem, whatever it is, and it completely blights their lives. Often these situations are really difficult to resolve, and sometimes moving is the only option," she said.

Knightstone Housing Associations area services manager David Greenhalgh said they could take legal action but tenants were required to provide practical evidence of any nuisance that had occurred, which was often difficult to get.