The owners of an electronic gate in Cottesloe that blocked kids from using a rear laneway have been forced to remove it.
WAtoday revealed last week there was an ongoing battle in the leafy seaside suburb ever since Sonja Madden and Greg Madden sealed off 54sqm of crown land on Lillian Street and put up an electronic gate more than a year ago.
Mr Madden claimed there had been a gate in some form or another at the property for almost 50 years, but Cottesloe council voted on Tuesday night for it to be pulled down because one of the conditions of it being there was it should be left open.
Ben Tiller who took the fight up to council, previously told WAtoday he bought the property behind on Curtin Avenue in early 2016, to use the public right-of-way at the rear of his home for his four kids.
"I saw that as very valuable living on Curtin Avenue with the traffic," he said at the time.
"I've got a young family and we are regularly out the back and up the hill to junior footy clubs and surf life saving and having that rear access really encouraged me to purchase the property.
"It has become bizarre... there doesn't seem to be a lot of clarity to this point, so we hope that the council (Town of Cottesloe) make a decision this evening, which will provide clarity going forward."
The father-of-four believed the owners didn't originally get permission from the town to erect the 1.8 metre gate but had since got retrospective approval.
He claimed one of the conditions of the approval was the gate should be unlocked, but it remained shut with a code none of the residents know.
"The conditions require access be granted to all neighbours - all properties adjacent to the right-of-way whether that be pedestrian access for myself or one other neighbour or vehicular access for another two neighbours," he said.
"The gate is locked by code - the code is not known to anyone and I think the council is not enforcing their own conditions for some reason."
Mr Madden confirmed council had ordered him to remove the gate, but said he was in the process of "working something out" with the town.
He said last week there was a gate at the house when he brought the property in 2012.
"Council records show the gate has been at the property since 1995," he said at the
"The whole thing is a mess...but we will have to wait to see what council does tonight."