SILVERONE said:
Derek it's an offence to have a electric fence that adjoins a public area or right of way.
The barbed wire is OK (I am led to believe) over a certain hight.
when I bought my property I put the electric fence all the way round the paddock there are properties to two sides and fields to the other two sides we put the electric fence to our side of a wooden post and rail fence on one of the sides with properties, and on wooden and plastic stakes to our side of our 6' brambles seperating us from what at the time was one other property, however a property developer bought this one other property and built four more houses in the garden, and chopped my brambles from 6' down to about 2' so until they grow back the electric fence is all that is keeping the horses from straying onto these properties.
regarding the legalities of leccy fencing our solicitor informed us that it is legal adjoining a public area or right of way providing there are adequate warning signs explaining that the fence is electrified.
regarding barbed wire, several years ago I was taking my dog for a walk one dark evening when I nearly had my eye ripped out by a piece of barbed wire hanging from a fence, I went back the next morning to have a look, and found that the owner had coiled a roll of barbed wire to the top of his fence which was about 6' but he had not chopped the end off he just left it trailing about 3' across a public footpath.