‘Childish’ plant pots row ends in £200,000 bill
A “CHILDISH” neighbourly dispute over plant pots led to police being called 200 times and one couple left with a £200,000 court bill.
Grant Shortland accused Chris Hill, a teacher, and his wife Susan of deliberately putting the pots in their yard to stop him getting his car out of his drive.
A judge has now ordered them to move their flowers in front of the house in Wincanton, south Somerset.
Mr Shortland, 55, a bricklayer, had a right of way over the Hills’ yard to get his car on to the road, Judge Paul Matthews said. Mr Shortland and Melanie Heritage, 54, his partner, had no other access.
But the Hills had placed plant pots and other items to cause “maximum inconvenience”. The judge said: “It is childish behaviour by the defendants and reflects no credit on them or their relatives who took part in this game. I cannot help thinking that they have embarked on this campaign deliberately, with a view to discouraging Mr Shortland, little by little, from making any use of the rights which he has, and so rendering the yard a much more valuable piece of land to them than it was when they bought and paid a reduced price for it.”
The court heard the number of police visits, emails, texts and phone calls was well over 200, involving more than 30 police officers.
Judge Matthews, who also ruled on the exact line of the boundary between the properties, ordered the Hills pay 90 per cent of their neighbours’ estimated £98,000 legal bills. They will also have to pay their own fees, bringing the total cost of the dispute for them to around £200,000.