STOP YOUR CARPING!
Neighbours in bitter three-year battle over a garden pond that’s left taxpayers with £25,000 bill ordered by judge to...
WHEN Mohamed Abdel-Khalek and his wife Aila built a carp pond in their garden, they intended it to be an oasis of calm.
Instead, it became the focus of a three-year legal battle with their neighbours that ended up costing the taxpayer £24,800.
Prior to the row, the AbdelKhaleks had lived happily for 13 years in their eight-bedroom Grade II listed home in Boston, Lincolnshire, beside Philip, 70, and Jennifer Brewster, 69, who lived in a bungalow next door.
But they fell out with the Brewsters in 2015 soon after they finished building the 20ft by 10ft pond in their 200ft rear garden.
The Brewsters grew enraged over the noise of a pump for the pond and leakages from the new water feature, which is just a few feet from their bungalow.
The issues were resolved but the feud escalated when the Brewsters took offence at plastic herons, a Santa Claus figure and a 1.5ft Saudi Arabian flag that the Abdel-Khaleks – who were given retrospective
Judge tells couples to ‘ignore each other’
planning permission for the pond in 2016 – hung above the pond. They claim they were to protect their koi carp but the Brewsters said they were put up to ‘intimidate’ them.
The Brewsters repeatedly complained to the police and Boston Borough Council about the ‘offensive’ items, claiming that retired eye surgeon Dr Abdel-Khalek, 67, who was born in Egypt but has lived in worked in the UK for more than 30 years, and his wife, born in the UK, were extremists.
They also rang the Saudi embassy to get a translation of writing on the Saudi flag.
Dr Abdel-Khalek then accused Mr Brewster, a solicitor who specialises in land development, of spying on his family.
The council tried to end the dispute by asking the warring neighbours to sign an Anti-Social Behaviour contract. When the Abdel-Khaleks refused, the council sought an injunction against them.
Following a number of county court hearings, the case ended up at the High Court of Justice in Birmingham last week.
In the ruling, both couples were criticised. Bemoaning the loss of an ‘inordinate amount of time and public money’, it read: ‘Both [couples] are intelligent people – they all say they want a quiet life and to live peaceably within their neighbourhood.
‘The remedy is in their own hands – they should simply ignore each other if they cannot behave civilly on the rare occasions they meet.’
The judge ordered the AbdelKhaleks to pay 60 per cent of the £62,000 cost of the case with the taxpayer to cover the rest. An injunction bans the Abdel-Khaleks from hanging items ‘in plain sight of the Brewsters’ property’.
Mr Brewster said: ‘It’s been a massively disruptive part of our lives.’ Dr Abdel-Khalek said: ‘We just want to live a normal life and be allowed to enjoy our garden in peace.’