A man says he feels “trapped” after a used car lot was set up behind his house in an alleged breach of planning control.

Darren Stephens, who lives in Kings Close, Hendon, says he can no longer enjoy his garden and fears his house has been devalued by the Car Joint dealership at Sopers Yard, 155 Bell Lane.

But the site’s landlord, Aaron Schwebel, denies the car lot is causing a nuisance and claims he can prove permission was granted for its current use. He has lodged an appeal against an enforcement notice issued by Barnet Council ordering the use of the land to cease.

Mr Stephens claimed the problems started when previously disused land at 155 Bell Lane was cleared in summer last year and used for waste processing before being turned into Car Joint. He claims planning permission had not been granted.

“The site is unattractive, the noise is terrible, and a bus is parked right outside,” he said. “There are fumes and pollution.

“I don’t sit out in the garden and have the French windows open now. It is a seven-days-a-week operation as well.

“The house is substantially below what I expected it to fetch. No-one is going to buy a house when there is something going on at the bottom of the garden.

“If I sold, the value would be below what I would have obtained 12 months ago. I feel trapped.”

Mr Stephens claimed a fence that was put up around the site of the car lot had blocked access to a path running behind his property.

He added that Barnet Council had been slow to act on the alleged planning breach, claiming the authority had been “derelict in its duty decisively to protect the residents and the community”.

This Is Local London: The fence at the end of Mr Stephens' gardenThe fence at the end of Mr Stephens' garden

But landlord Mr Schwebel, of Marshmill Properties, said: “There is an appeal going on, but an existing planning permission was in place for 30 to 40 years. It was a council vehicle depot.”

The landlord claimed to have obtained “letters of consent from 90 per cent of people in Kings Close”. But Mr Stephens claimed the people he had spoken to said they had not been consulted – and if they had, they would not have agreed to it.

Mr Schwebel claimed Mr Stephens had extended his garden onto his land, which is why the access route was blocked – although Mr Stephens denies doing so.

The landlord also denied the allegations of noise and pollution, adding that a camera had been recording the site for a year and a half and “shows no noise disturbance there whatsoever”.

A Barnet Council spokesperson said: “We received a complaint at the latter end of last year, and in January served a notice requiring the use of the land to cease and for the structures associated with that use to be removed.

“We cannot comment further at this stage, because the matter is subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate by the owners of the land.”