An 81-year-old has won a three-year battle against a council that fenced across a gap in her garden wall her family had used as access for decades.
Helene Ball – a resident of George Road in Matlock, Derbyshire, since 1967 – took legal action after Derbyshire County Council cemented a metal fence panel blocking the 98cm gated gap between her garden and a council car park in April 2023.
A first-tier tribunal has ruled in Ball’s favour over the dispute, after she proved use of the gate since the 1960s.
A right of way has now been established, while the council has been ordered by the courts to pay £50,000 costs and to ensure her access is not impeded again.
Ball, a retired teacher, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I have taught nine, 10 and 11-year-olds all my life, but I never expected the council to act so babyish, they have been spitting their dummies out of the pram and it has been beyond childish.
“They did everything they could to bully me. They tried to put us off but they messed with the wrong ones.
“At my age you don’t know how many years you have left, and this has given me three years-plus of stress but now we have proven they blocked our rights.”