THEY say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Steve Richards thought his two old torpedoes had such aesthetic quality, he wanted to turn them into garden benches at his Cornish home.

But his landlord, Coastline Housing, thought them dangerous and called police, who called out the bomb disposal experts and who in turn confirmed they were harmless.

Despite the 9ft torpedoes being inert, Coastline is now insisting Mr Richards remove them from the front garden of his home in Murdoch Close, Redruth, much to his dismay.

"They have been in the family for 17 years," Mr Richards told the Western Morning News.

"My father used to have them in his garden at Carharrack until about a year ago.

"I brought them down here to spruce them up, give them a lick of paint and turn them into garden benches, so we could sit on them in the sun.

"They are more interesting than a bit of cast metal from China.

"Then all of a sudden, I get a phone call from my son asking me to come home because the police are here.

"There were four police officers here when I came back and then three explosive experts from RNAS Culdrose came over as well.

"They were 90 per cent sure that they were not a problem but wanted me to be here today so that the bomb disposal team from Plymouth could X-ray them to double-check."

Mr Richards, who has lived in the house for 23 years, said the torpedoes were actually drill rounds, which had been used only to practise loading and unloading, and were clearly empty. He now has an "explosive-free certificate" proving they are inert.

"It's madness," added the father-of-four. "It is such a waste of taxpayers' money. They are now saying I have got a week to get rid of them, otherwise I am in breach of my tenancy.

"I wouldn't mind so much but I don't have a submarine or a helicopter to launch these things and I'm not likely to throw them at anyone because they are so heavy."

Jane Pulley, tenancy manager at Coastline Housing, said that everyone concerned had taken the "appropriate action".

She had alerted police of the potential danger: "We are not bomb disposal experts and neither is Mr Richards.

"Obviously it was treated seriously enough to involve the bomb squad from Plymouth who came down and X-rayed the torpedoes to make sure they were safe.

"They were happy they are safe but as far as the tenancy is concerned, gardens should be kept in a clean, tidy and cultivated state."

She said Coastline Housing was trying to encourage residents to care for their gardens and their estate and the torpedoes could cause "alarm" among local residents who could not know they had been declared safe.

"It is not appropriate to have two torpedoes in the front garden of a house in a residential area," she said.