A council has been dubbed “spiteful” and “petty” after being accused of “barricading” an elderly resident and a young family into their own homes.
Derbyshire Council fenced off the garden gates of two family homes in an apparent row over the "sale of a car park".
The erection of the 3ft wide fences, blocking off entrance to the rear of the homes, has been slammed by residents.
The council closed its car park in Matlock, and blocked the entrance with barriers on April 21, with residents who had been allowed to use the site for decades given just a couple of days' notice, DerbyshireLive reports.
Following the impromptu closure, the council went one step further installed two fence panels across the rear garden gates of two properties, which lead onto the car park and cemented them into the ground.
This was carried out without any notice and consultation and means the residents cannot exit from the rear of their own properties.
The county council claims there are no legal rights of way across its land. Both households suspect the move was done spitefully due to residents in the area forming a community group, the Matlock Community Land Trust, in a bid to buy the car park.
The county council has plans to sell the site to pave the way for 30 homes, while the community group is planning eight homes, allotments, a community orchard and car parking.
A 77-year-old woman who has lived in one of the properties since 1966 told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the move to fence over her garden gate was unfair and unnecessary.
She says there has been an exit from the rear of her house ever since she moved in and before the site was turned into a car park.
The woman, who did not wish to be identified, said she would now have to walk a much further distance around to visit relatives in Cavendish Road, which she says she would be unable to do due to health conditions – with the rear garden gate having provided a vital shortcut.
She said: “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.
“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 home which had its rear garden gate blocked belongs to a young family, who had frequently used that exit to take their three children out on their bikes via the car park.
"A father of three who has lived there for a few years, who did not want to be identified, 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.
"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.”
He says the council informed 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 households are also concerned about fire safety with their rear exits providing an additional means of escape, along with parking issues on surrounding roads blocking 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.”
