A local council has been criticised for "barricading" an elderly person and a young family in to their own homes. Derbyshire Council took the decision to close a car park off and put up a fence up over the entrance to some of the properties' gardens.
The car park on Cavendish Road, Matlock now has barriers around it that appeared on April 21 after residents were given just a few days notice as to its construction, reports DerbyshireLive.
The council then decided to install two fence panels across the rear garden gates of two houses on George Road, cementing them in to the ground. There was, it was reported, no notice given to residents of this installation who can now no longer exit their homes from the back.
The council claims there are no legal rights of way across its land but residents have slammed the move as “spiteful” and “petty". Residents in the area had formed a group, the Matlock Community Land Trust, and attempted to buy the car park.
The council is said to have plans to sell the site in order for 30 homes to be built while the community-led group is looking to build eight homes but include allotments, a community orchard and car parking.
One 77-year-old resident, who has lived in one of the affected properties since 1966, says the decision was 'unfair and unnecessary'. She says there has been a viable exit at the rear of her house even before the car park was introduced.
The woman claims she would have to walk further now to visit relatives having lost her shortcut through the back, something she revealed will be made impossible due to health conditions.
The woman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It is spiteful and petty. If it wasn’t bad enough with the car park being closed off, with cars now parked everywhere, blocking visibility.
“We think it is a reaction to the community group forming. I feel hemmed in. I lost my husband two years ago and a woman on her own feels very vulnerable… people see you on your own and think they can walk all over you.
“Blocking off part of the car park to allow some people to park and allow people to walk out of their back gardens would be an option, but I think this has been done out of spite. They have made it as difficult as possible for you because we are putting forward plans that they don’t want you to do, that’s what we think.
“When I came home and saw this I was so upset. I haven’t opened the garden gate since, I didn’t sleep for three nights when the fence first went up, I was so upset. I do not need this at age 77. I’ve had enough upset in my life and I just need to spend my remaining years in peace. I don’t need any more trauma.
"If they can behave like this they really should not be in the positions they are in. They are supposed to have people in who care for the community not cause them upset.”
The second affected home belongs to a young family who used to use the exit to take their children on their bikes via the car park. The father-of-three, who was lived there for a number of years, said: “For me it was frustrating to come home and see that this had been done to our home without any notice at all, and it was obviously pre-planned because the panels fit the gaps perfectly.
“To not notify us is the most frustrating bit. It is completely unnecessary because they had already closed the car park, it feels like there is an agenda. I was angry, you felt like you were being barricaded into your own back garden, really penned in, it feels like the council has an agenda and says it owns that land and wants to enforce that.
“We have always had that access, the fences have changed but the gaps in the wall have been there and we have never been challenged over that. I understand that they have that land and can do what they want but to block it off completely is unnecessary and then to go one step further and fence us in is not fair and is a mistake.
“They have clearly made a mistake and gone too far and have clearly been trying to draw the line. It is clearly unnecessary and is no way to behave at all. It is them showing a mark of authority. These fences over our garden gates don’t stop anyone else from walking onto the car park from Cavendish Road, and we can walk around that way too, so there seems to only be one reason: to mark their authority.”
The concerned dad says the council told him that Land Registry ownership shows the boundary and that this has been checked with the authority’s legal department, but he says this does not account for access rights, just land ownership.
Both affected homeowners have raised fears over fire safety and along with parking issues on nearby roads which could block access for emergency vehicles due to no longer being able to park off the streets.
A county council spokesperson said: “There are no legal rights of way registered on the title deed held by the Land Registry across the former car park off Cavendish Road or for access from properties on George Street. The land was used for many years as a car park for our employees who worked at Chatsworth Hall but as we no longer have any employees using Chatsworth Hall, we no longer have a need for the car park.
“Our duty to the taxpayers of Derbyshire is to seek best value for any land or buildings we no longer need and so we secured the site while we look for alternative options for the land. We’re aware that a small number of local residents had been using the car park and we wrote to all residents in close proximity to the site to let them know that the site would be secured and to ask them to move their vehicles before this date, which they did.”
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