Imagine waking up one morning to discover your local council has cemented a fence across your garden gate.
That’s exactly what happened to 81-year-old retired teacher Helene Ball, who says Derbyshire County Council effectively trapped her inside her own property and then spent three years fighting her in court over it.
Now, after a legal battle that’s reportedly cost around £50,000, a judge has ruled in her favour, ordering the council to recognise her access rights and pay her legal costs.
Helene, who has lived at her home on George Road in Matlock since 1967, woke up in April 2023 to find council workers had installed a metal fence panel across the gap in her rear garden wall, cutting off access she says her family had used for decades.
The council claimed she had no legal right to cross the neighbouring car park. Helene disagreed and decided to take them on.
Three years later, she won.
The tribunal heard that Helene and her family had used the route through a gate at the back of their property and across the council-owned car park for more than 40 years without being challenged. The judge ruled this gave her “prescriptive rights” over the land, meaning the access route must now be formally recognised.
As a result, those rights will be added to the deeds, the council has been ordered to cover her costs and must ensure she can access her property in future.
The case also produced some eyebrow-raising criticism of the council’s approach.
Judge Robert Brown described parts of the authority’s case as “surprisingly combative” given its “limited evidence”, while some arguments were labelled “totally irrelevant” and “most unhelpful”. The litigation itself was described as “pugnacious” – legal speak for aggressively argumentative.
Speaking after the ruling, Helene did not hold back.
She said: “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.
“It is absolutely shocking behaviour. They did everything they could to bully me.”
The retired teacher said the dispute had caused years of stress and anxiety.
“At my age, you don’t know how many years you have left and this has given me more than three years of stress,” she said.
“I am disgusted that the council would behave in this manner and try to intimidate me into giving up.”
Her son David, who helped throughout the legal fight, said the dispute began just two weeks after the death of his father, calling the installation of the fence a “completely unnecessary act of aggression”.
He said: “The council has tried to shut us down for three years and shut down every form of resolution or negotiation.
“It undermines your faith in the system and it was frightening what lengths they would go to get what they want.”
Following the ruling, council workers were seen installing large concrete blocks through the car park to create a route allowing Helene vehicle access to her garden once again.
Derbyshire County Council declined to comment on the case or reveal how much public money had been spent fighting it.
After three years, multiple court hearings and tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs, Helene’s verdict was simple:
“They messed with the wrong ones.”
By Local Democracy Reporter Eddie Bisknell and SITM’s Laura Wilde
