Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has got locals shouting “Hey You” about plans to move a historical monument.

The musician has been renovating his six-storey seafront mansion with wife Polly Samson since they bought it in 2009.

But the plans for the outbuildings to the rear of Karron Eubank's former £3 million home in Medina Terrace, Hove, have hit The Wall over a six-foot Victorian monument.

The couple have stirred up anger with a planning application to move the marble cross near the buildings, called the Coach House, about 20 metres so they can extend a canoe store.

Valerie Paynter, of Save Hove, said: “It’s not neighbourly; it’s a middle finger to local history.

“From the very start they have showed utter contempt for that cross. It’s a unique feature of the local townscape.

“They want to wilfully and selfishly hack into and damage local history - for a canoe.”

The controversy centres on a white monument to Wilford Cole Verner who served in the Royal Fusiliers and died aged 26. He was the younger brother of Ida Constance Verner, who used to live in nearby Victoria Terrace and used the coach house as a studio.

In the wall

The cross, which is at the far end of the development site, is currently embedded in the boundary wall with Medina Terrace.

When planning permission was approved to convert the former workshop in January it was agreed to keep it in place. But locals claim workers were only stopped last month from “hacking away” at the cross by a resident living nearby.

A further application has now been received by Brighton and Hove City Council from Hoveco, which has Mr Gilmour listed as a director, to move it.

Ewen Stoddart, of LCE Architects, said: “It will be our intention to have the cross fully repaired and restored to give a more permanent historical reference point to the property.”

Louise Stack, who has lived in Medina Terrace since the 1960s, said she believed there was a body under the cross.

Mr Stoddart said the firm had carried out a topography survey which showed “no evidence” to suspect a grave may be located in vicinity of the cross or the building.

Ida Verner

Ida Constance Verner was a figure and portrait painter who lived in Victoria Terrace, Hove.

She used the area to the rear of her home, known as the coach house, as her main studio.

Miss Verner is also believed to have had addresses in Brighton, London and South Devon.

She was the daughter of Colonel William John Verner, who was a keen falconer and friends of the Royal family.

Her work was widely displayed, including at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London.

A number of her paintings are now in the possession of Brighton and Hove Museums. They include a portrait of

J.W. Lister who was the Hove Borough Librarian and Curator in the late 19th Century.

Verner House in Victoria Terrace is thought to have been built by her father.

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