Is there anything I can do about this fence ?

chipmunk

Sorry if this post is too long but for those willing to listen, here goes ….

The rear garden of our house backs on to a primary school playing field, the level of which is approx. 3' higher than ours and our neighbours' properties and having a ditch between the fields perimeter and our boundary. We have a small (only 4' high) fence along the bottom of our garden which has in the past afforded a lovely outlook from our house and garden and indeed, the view was one of the reasons we bought the property.

However, for the last couple of years, the school has allowed an area approx. 15' deep to become overgrown with nettles/weeds/long grass etc. (no wild flowers are in there) which is supposedly to be for the pupils to study wildlife (amongst stinging nettles:eek: ). However, a friend who has some connection with the school says it has hardly ever been used for this purpose.

This outer edge of this area is right up to the top of the ditch next to our garden and as such is extremely unsightly, not to mention the increase in weeds and nettles which appear in our garden.

Anyway, I wrote a really nice, polite letter to the Head of the school requesting if they could possibly maintain this area as they used to or, if they absolutely had to have an area like this, could they relocate it to a different part of the field where it is away from the houses.

On my return home from work the next day, I was gobsmacked to see that a green welded mesh fence, 6' high, had been erected in the ditch, right up against our fence leaving a gap of approx. 6". There was also a letter from the Head which said "sorry that you are unhappy - we feel it necessary to demarcate our boundaries and we are currently in the process of erecting a fence to achieve this and hope that this helps your problem" !! How on earth that can help is beyond me; it has actually made the situation ten times worse with regard to the view.:mad: I replied to his letter saying as much and when he replied back again, this time the reason for the fence was a "risk management exercise" because "there have been occasions where youths are entering the playing field after school hours through a gap between the boundary fence and a hedge at the bottom corner of the field". Well, I have seen these youths enter the field and, indeed, contacted the police many times when I have seen them stealing/wrecking toys from the nursery playground or damaging property and I know that this is not where they enter. They come in further down that boundary where there is a chain link fence which you can quite clearly see where they have bent it down to get over.

I realise that the school has every right to erect a fence if they want to but it has had such an impact on our property, I feel they should have at least informed the residents and got their views on the matter rather than just put it up. When sitting in my living room looking out of the window, all I can see is that fence as it is only about 15' from our window. Also, it has caused us a real problem in that we can no longer maintain that side of our fence (which incidentally we were going to do this holiday weekend) as the fence panels are fixed to the brick pillars with screws at the back of the panels and we cannot get into the gap to remove them. We previously used to be able to walk into the ditch through a little gate we had made in one of the panels.

For those of you still awake, does anyone know if there is some clause that says the erection of a fence must not prevent the owner of a neighbouring property from maintaining their boundary?

chipmunk

I think it was the school itself. Don't know for sure though.

never_enough

I doubt that your letter prompted the fence as it's pretty rare for such things to be decided overnight. As far as I understand it you have no automatic right to a view. The school are, as you say, perfectly within their rights to erect a fence. I believe this can be up to 6' before it requires planning permission.

I'm not sure that you do have a right to access to maintain the fence, imagine it were a family living next door. Would you assume you had the right to access their garden to paint your fence? Some might call this trespass. :rolleyes:

Dont worry about painting the other side of your fence, most people don't have the opportunity to do this anyway. Or if you really feel the need to do the other side you could try using a roller or sprayer.

chipmunk

never_enough wrote: »

I doubt that your letter prompted the fence as it's pretty rare for such things to be decided overnight. As far as I understand it you have no automatic right to a view. The school are, as you say, perfectly within their rights to erect a fence. I believe this can be up to 6' before it requires planning permission.

I'm not sure that you do have a right to access to maintain the fence, imagine it were a family living next door. Would you assume you had the right to access their garden to paint your fence? Some might call this trespass. :rolleyes:

Dont worry about painting the other side of your fence, most people don't have the opportunity to do this anyway. Or if you really feel the need to do the other side you could try using a roller or sprayer.

I didn't mean that I thought the fence had been as a result of my letter. It was just a coincidence, a disappointing one though.



Your idea about spraying or using a roller is a good one. However, there is not enough of a gap to get your arm down to use either one of these. But thanks for your reply.

HugoSP

quill wrote: »

Sorry, I seem to keep butting in to other peoples' posts today but something AlMac said interests me.
Do we really have rights to maintain our property.
When we moved in, we wwere worried about how close our extension is to the boundary fence. In order to maintain it, we would have to go next door, remove the fence panels to maintain it.
We've always been concerned that neighbours or future ones could choose to be awkward. I just hope it lasts a long time. If what you say is true Almac, I'll be a lot happier.

The Neighbourhood Act gives people the right to maintain their property, even if this means that they have to access it via a neigbour's property.

However this would take money etc to enforce. Much better to be on good terms with neigbours.

When new neigbours move into our area I always make a point of visiting them and introducing myself. This has helped me get on with even the most difficult of neigbours.

martindow

I believe there is a 2m or 6 foot height limit for fences unless planning permission is sought. As their field is already 3 feet higher than your garden do you have any right to reduce the height of their fence so that it is 6 feet on your side rather than the effective 9 feet at present?

HugoSP

martindow wrote: »

I believe there is a 2m or 6 foot height limit for fences unless planning permission is sought. As their field is already 3 feet higher than your garden do you have any right to reduce the height of their fence so that it is 6 feet on your side rather than the effective 9 feet at present?

I suspect this is a question that is best raised with the enforcement dept at the planning office. I asked a similar question recently and TBH they didn't seem to know the answer.

If the OP does ask the question and is not happy with the answer she could always go to what used to be the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for more clarifiation.