Forum menu
TJ, from a CSO but....
If the barbed wire is not adjoining the highway and an injury results, you could still be faced with a claim for damages under the Occupier Liability Acts. Occupiers of premises have a duty of care, to people entering or using their premises. This duty even extends to trespassers, although it is not as extensive as it is to people lawfully using or visiting the premises. So a burglar, who could not be aware that barbed wire was on top of a fence and injured himself on it, could have a claim against you despite the fact that he was a trespasser.
Which is possibly the reason why places with barbed wire etc have signs all over them, not a pleasant look in a residential area though.
The OLA seems to say:
(the question whether a risk was so accepted to be decided on the same principles as in other cases in which one person owes a duty of care to another).
So I guess you have to give the crim a chance to make the decision, i.e. signs.
Think I prefer the Punji stick option.
My parents have Pyracantha growing all up the side of their garage, as others have said it looks nice in flower and the berries attract loads of birds. We had a nest in there for years - no cat in the land can get near it with those evil thorns!
Berberis, probably best for growth and coverage.
Would old chain rings be of any use? Lining the edge of your shed roof. Decorative but sharp enough to be a deterrent?
There is a variety of blackberry that is fast growing, trainable, tough and very thorny. Marketed as natural razor wire - and totally legal. Should do the trick and you get to make jam/pudding.
It depends upon the soil there - Berberis likes dry and hot.
Brambles and roses are pretty tolerant. A hedgerow mix of blackthorn interlaced with Dog Rose and Bramble should be pretty inpassable plus great for natural wildlife.
Waste engine oil on top of the wall. It will never wash out of the Mosschino Tracky bottoms or white Tossscini tops. lay a course of bricks the 'wrong' way up .ie for a top course you put flat side uppermost to prevent frost damage if water collects, so whack them on with the gulley uppermost , and fill it with old engine oil, from a diesel taxi , so its got 30,000 miles use and is like treacle.
Saves having to wait 2 years for your thicket to grow.
Or dig 4 foot hole in front of wall , making it 10ft to the top, place sharpened bamboo sticks in the bottom , smeared with dog poo.
You need some of this ontop of your wall:
http://www.insight-security.com/per-razorcomb.htm
[img] 
[/img]