Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SIMPLY POTTY
Woman, 72, faces £30k court bill after blocking shared drive with pot plants in a 10-year feud
A PENSIONER has been hit with a £30,000 legal bill after a 10-year feud with a neighbour over blocking a shared driveway with pot plants.
Yvonne Rogers, 72, was sued by Janice Wright after creating a garden on her side of the passage between their houses.
Both of them own half of its width – but each has a right of way over all of it.
Mrs Wright complained the pots and overgrown foliage blocked her right of way and made it hard for her to push her grandkid’s buggy to her house.
After losing their long fight, Rogers ignored a court order to get her pot plants off the drive in Portchester, Hants.
And now, in addition to facing a £30,000 bill for legal costs, she is appealing a suspended jail term.
The Court of Appeal in London heard that Mrs Wright complained her neighbour had begun obstructing the driveway by leaving plant pots on her side in around 2012.
She also put her wheelie bins and garden ornaments along the driveway and let trees and plants growing on her side overhang it. Exasperated Mrs
Wright eventually dragged Rogers to Winchester county court last year and won an injunction ordering her neighbour to clear the area.
But Rogers failed to comply and was hauled back to court in June this year, when she was found in contempt by Judge Michael Berkley.
In his ruling, he said Rogers had denied encroaching on the right of way and claimed her neighbour had been trying to force her out of her home so she could buy it cheap.
He said: “I accept it is distressing for Mrs Wright to have to live next door to Ms Rogers in these circumstances.
“Mrs Wright explained to me not only is this an encroachment of her right of way, there are also actual practical difficulties caused.
“First, moving her wheelie bins and secondly getting her granddaughter’s pushchair up and down the drive is made difficult. So this is not just a question of the court order being disobeyed, it is actually a matter of personal inconvenience to Ms Wright and her family.”
He added: “I take into account the fact that Mrs Wright has clearly had this right of way being interfered with for quite some time.
“By the extent of the foliage allowed to grow up, one might say Mrs Wright has indeed been very indulgent to Ms Rogers over the years.”
He said that Rogers’ response to the court proceedings had been to not turn up and send a string of emails seeking to “threaten, demean and accuse” those involved, including Mrs Wright.
“The conduct which the defendant has chosen to engage with this matter has brought severe distress, worry, fear, and expense to Mrs Wright,” he added. In September, Mr Berkley sentenced her to six months’ jail for ignoring the injunction. But appealing to have the sentence overturned last week, Rogers’ barrister John King said she had removed the pots after the hearing in June and would cut back the bushes.
She also suffers “severe underlying” health issues and plans to leave the street so that she can put the dispute behind her, he added.
“This is a long-running and acrimonious dispute between neighbours which has been allowed to spin out of control, with the sad but inevitable consequences for Ms Rogers’ mental health which has added to and further exacerbated her already fragile physical health,” he told the court.
“She has taken active steps towards selling her property and moving away. She believes that the sale could be completed within a year.”
Lord Justice Stuart-smith said the court would give a full ruling on the sentence appeal at a later date but would be suspending Rogers’ sentence so she does not go to jail.
[Her] conduct has brought severe distress, worry, fear, and expense JUDGE MICHAEL BERKLEY ON YVONNE ROGERS