Resident locked in garden access row with council
A CAOL resident says she is bitterly disappointed at the way she claims she has been treated by Highland Council in a row over access to her rear garden following construction of the village’s new primary school, writes Mark Entwistle.
The row between the local authority and Caol resident Monika Niezbecka, who lives in Glenkingie Street with her husband and young child, has been going on since December last year. Ms Niezbecka told the Loch
aber Times that when the new school was being built, she was assured by a council official she would not lose access to the back garden of her property.
‘I have a gate in the fence at the rear of my house and this is where my oil and wood get delivered,’ said Ms Niezbecka, who has lived in the house for five years. ‘I don’t have enough space at the front of the house to get things like this delivered, plus my oil tank is in the back garden. But I was told there would be at least a gap of two metres between my fence and the boundary of the new school car park. The gate at the back lets me get my pram through as well. The front door does not have enough space to get the pram through.’
Ms Niezbecka claims she was repeatedly promised there would not be an access problem.
‘Every time I mentioned it, someone from the council told me not to worry, that everything would be fine. I was told it would just be grassed at the back. But then the council planted bushes all the way along. Now the school has been built, I have been told I have no legal right to come in through a gate in the fence at the back. I pay a lot of Council Tax and this is just not fair.’
But Highland Council says it has tried to help Ms Niezbecka retain easy access to her garden by removing some of its newly-planted bushes from a strip of ground close to the new school.
Quizzed about the row, a council spokesman said originally, the proposal for the new school boundary was to be hard against the rear boundaries of the properties on Glenkingie Street.
‘However it was agreed we would leave a 2m grass strip between boundaries in recognition of the fact a number of houses along this stretch had installed gates which used to lead onto the rear of the old community centre. This was only to be a grass strip and never a formal adopted path,’ the spokesman said.
He added: ‘Council staff have met with Ms Niezbecka on a number of occasions and have explained this arrangement to her. It also has been pointed out to her that as she is in a mid-terraced house the property deeds have provision for a right of access around the end block house to access her rear garden
‘To our knowledge no permission has been granted for access from the rear across the former community centre site. Despite this, to assist Ms Niezbecka, we have removed some of the planting which stopped her from following the fence line.’