Retired teacher's three-year legal hell after council blocked garden gate used by her family for 60 years

Helene Ball had been out shopping with a friend when she returned to find her local council had erected a green metal fence outside her home, completely blocking the rear access to her garden.

'The cement was already dry. I was angry at first then I just laughed,' she said.

'You have to laugh about it otherwise you'll cry.'

Mrs Ball is speaking this week from her immaculate semi overlooking the picturesque town of Matlock in the Derbyshire Dales after she won a three-year, £50,000 David and Goliath fight with Derbyshire County Council over the 3ft 3in gateway.

She is making a Victoria Sponge cake but is 'worn out' she admits.

For despite her good humour, the extraordinary battle has taken its toll on the 81-year-old retired teacher and her family.

And it is still not over – for last week, in what Mrs Ball described as a final act of vindictiveness, the council dumped giant concrete blocks outside her home – ostensibly to reinstate Mrs Ball's access after her resounding legal victory. 

But the 54, 2ft blocks – which resemble huge Lego pieces and cost the council £7,700 it emerged yesterday – have only added to Mrs Ball's distress.

'It's stolen my summer, I haven't been able to enjoy my garden,' she said. 'I just hope I live long enough to get another one next year that I can enjoy.'

Helene Ball, 81, now has a fresh fight on her hands after giant concrete 'Lego' blocks were dumped outside her property in Matlock, Derbyshire

Mrs Ball, 81, pictured in her garden in front of the 3ft gateway at the centre of the legal fight

An aerial vies of the huge blocks - which resemble large Lego blocks - outside her home 

Derbyshire County Council said the blocks were were installed to 'enable vehicular access to Mrs Ball while preventing fly-tipping and racing and other antisocial activities elsewhere on the site'.

The fence which started the three-year legal dispute

The sorry saga dates back to April 2023 when the gate appeared – by which time Mrs Ball had been living at the property – and using the gate – for almost 60 years.

She and her late husband Brian, who she met while at teacher training college in Matlock, bought the house shortly after it was built in 1967 and raised their two children, David and Frances there.

At the bottom of their garden was a concrete wall where a small gap had been left for a gate, which Mr Ball later fitted.

The green metal fence appeared a month before the second anniversary of his death – at a time of great distress for Mrs Ball.

'I had been shopping in town. My neighbour said 'do you know the council have concreted a fence in front of your gate?' I came out and there it was. By then the concrete had set solid.' 

The gateway leads to a council-owned car park. Originally belonging to the local teacher's training college – where Mrs Ball studied – it was later given over to the county council and used for parking for its staff before the authority decided to put it up for sale for housing to bring in much needed capital funds.

It seems to have been this decision to sell which prompted the council to block Mrs Ball's access as a short time later the car park was fenced off and the metal gate erected.

'They don't want anyone parking because they want to sell it with vacant possession,' Mrs Ball said.

'I just came home and there it was. No communication whatsoever. They only came to see me afterwards when they tried to fool me to into losing my rights.'

She is referring to a visit from the council in which they asked her to sign a temporary licence to use the gate. 

It would have meant she would have lost her right to claim prescriptive easement - the legal right to use another person's land, which can be acquired by proving continuous use over at least 20 years. 

Thankfully she didn't and instead sought legal advice while David, a landscape gardener, started his own research and they applied for the access to be added to the land registry.

The case finally went before a first tier tribunal judge in May.

Mrs Ball was questioned during an online hearing, while her son David gave evidence for more two hours.

They argued that her continued access amounted to prescriptive rights to access and, finally in August, the land judge ruled in her favour.

The access will now be added to the deed for the land while the council was also ordered to pay her costs of around £50,000 as well as ensure her pedestrian and vehicular access is not impeded.

It came after Mrs Ball was able to demonstrate she and her family used the gate to access the car park on foot and by car since 1967.

For while the couple had a driveway and a garage at the front of their house, their home is at the end of a steep, narrow S-shaped cul de sac and access to the rear was easier.

They were able to prove – through pictures and oral testimony – that from approximately 1967 onwards, she, her husband, their children and visitors to their house all used the car park for pedestrian and vehicular access.

Mrs Ball told how her husband, a forklift truck driver at a local quarry, would walk through the car park to the town centre, where he would be picked up by a colleague, until he retired in 1997.

Mr Ball would also leave the house via the car park when he would walk down to the River Derwent to go fishing.

Until she retired in 1973, Mrs Ball, who worked at Alfreton Junior School, would walk through the rear gate, down the car park and into town where she too would be picked up by a colleague.

Pictures show her children playing in the snow on the land and learning to ride bikes there while Mr Bell had fitted a tyre swing to one of the trees for them. 

David Bell would be picked up and dropped off by car at the rear gate following rugby practice and nights out.

For their part the council, who hired lawyers to fight the case, accused Mrs Ball and her son of demonstrating a 'degree of entitlement', because they believed the access was of 'benefit to the property', accusing them of embellishing their evidence.

Lawyers acting for the council also claimed the row stemmed from the fact that Mrs Ball and her son were opposed to houses being built on the land and 'they realised the registration of a right of way could inconvenience potential future development'.

The judge however said they were honest witnesses but described the council's case as 'pugnacious'.

Allen Shepherd, the council's head of Estates, Corporate Property, Corporate Services and Transformation, was 'surprisingly combative' the judge said while his 'evidence consisted of unsubstantiated assertions'.

One of his sarcastic responses was 'totally irrelevant' and 'most unhelpful' the judge added. 

They were able to prove – through pictures and oral testimony – that from approximately 1967 onwards, they had used the gate. Pictured is Mrs Ball's daughter Frances and son David sledging on the car park. 

Mrs Ball and her children on their bikes in the car park behind her house pictured in 1977

Mrs Ball with husband Brian on holiday in San Francisco in 2000. He died in 2021. 

Yesterday the council issued a statement apologising to Mrs Ball, saying it recognised the 'situation has brought distress' to her and 'remain sorry for the upset caused'.

It said the blocks were installed to 'enable vehicular access to Mrs Ball while preventing fly-tipping and racing and other antisocial activities elsewhere on the site'.

But later admitted temporary blocks actually remained at the car park entrance while 'we await the final judgment and confirm that the arrangements fully reflect it'.

It also said it has no current plans to sell the land despite a large for sale sign outside.

Mrs Ball, whose grandchildren have taken to calling her 'gangster Granny', even mocking up a picture of her wearing a chain and smoking a cigar following her victory, believes the blocks were installed out of 'spite'.

'Because I have won my case, it has devalued the amount the money that they can actually ask,' she said.

'They have been antagonistic and it was totally unnecessary. They knew they couldn't win. When they saw our witness statements over a period of 60 years - why did they carry on?

'At one stage they just flatly refused to communicate. 

'They thought they would frighten me sufficiently that I would stop and give in. But I didn't, though I couldn't have done it without David.'

Asked what she wants to happen now she says she simply wants the blocks removed but isn't hopeful they will be anytime soon.

'All I want now is to be left in peace to enjoy the rest of my life. I have had enough. It has been a long time, it has taken over my life and David's. All over a tiny gate.'