Mayfair residents to sue American embassy over 'living nightmare' of security cordon

Countess Anca Vidaeff-Tyoran glanced out of her window at what she calls "Checkpoint Charlie" - a security booth surrounded by concrete fortifications outside the American embassy in London - and said: "It is a cauldron of mess and noise. Our homes and our lives have been blighted. Now we are fighting back."

Countess Anca Vidaeff-Tyoran glanced out of her window at what she calls "Checkpoint Charlie" - a security booth surrounded by concrete fortifications outside the American embassy in London - and said: "It is a cauldron of mess and noise. Our homes and our lives have been blighted. Now we are fighting back."

After 18 months of putting up with identity checks, sprawling anti-terrorist defences and traffic restrictions, the well-heeled inhabitants of one of the capital's most expensive pieces of real estate, Grosvenor Square, announced yesterday that they are going to court.

Led by the countess, a number of the embassy's neighbours signalled that the "special relationship" in the heart of Mayfair has been driven perilously close to divorce by the war against terror."The embassy has exceeded its international boundaries, we have deliveries at all hours, and we live in the constant threat of a terrorist attack," the countess said. "The area has become a living nightmare."

The assorted millionaires, blue-chip executives and international glitterati who live around Grosvenor Square say they are preparing a lawsuit against the American government, Westminster council and the Metropolitan Police, to seek redress for the plummeting property prices and inconvenience caused by the fortifications built in the aftermath of 11 September.

The Georgian square, with the imposing embassy, was swathed in layers of steel fencing, riot barriers and thigh-high cement blocks and patrolled by armed police within days of the attacks on New York and Washington.

But, in a municipal row that pits the global superpower against some of the world's wealthiest burghers, the residents complain that not enough has been done to replace the temporary measures with a permanent arrangement that will protect not only Washington's most high-profile foreign outpost but also those who live around it. The campaigners claim the value of their homes has fallen by up to 60 per cent, wiping up to £300m off the Georgian townhouses.

Officials from the embassy met planning officers from Westminster Council last month to discuss proposals to replace the barriers with a permanent structure. But such is the strength of feeling that some in Mayfair believe that the only realistic resolution is for the embassy to move elsewhere.