To ask who I’m supposed to report my CF neighbour to?

Bolt cutters.

If the bolt-cutting police come along, tell them you were only doing it to protect lovely old Nora from getting into trouble for doing it in the first place.

Cut out the middle men, calls and emails. Simply snip.

I think the OP may have just found her answer. 👌

It will be a condition of the planning permission. Developers have to provide a certain amount of open space and this will include a set number of areas of play. It will be a breach of planning for it not to be open space so the councils S. 106 officer should be able to help enforce the conditions.

Can the gate be removed?

She owns the chain, not the gate, so get rid of the gate.

Legally the park should have a sign on it with the details of who to contact in an emergency, padlocking one of the gates would be a breach of ROSPA guidelines in their weekly and quarterly inspections so I’d raise that with them.

since technically the private road is owned by all of you.

No where in this thread has this been confirmed or denied. This is why the OP feels like she is banging her head against a brick wall. I don't understand why the management company can't simply tell her who they are acting on behalf of and where she can obtain written evidence as to who is entitled to use what.

Eh. I’d be using bolt cutters whilst looking incognito and like a stereotypical burglar so the ring can’t pick up my features. No one is going to stop this- the only option (maybe) could be a lawyer since technically the private road is owned by all of you. Or let her know you are petitioning for it to be hers and the full cost of maintaining it being hers alone. Otherwise you need to accept you’ll never get access again that way and move on

OP needs to talk to her!

This I do agree with.

Well if the woman can prove she owns then it’s job done…if she doesn’t then everyone needs access. OP needs to talk to her!

But without proof of who owns it and who is entitled to use it, the OP is in no more of a position to tell the woman to take it off than the woman was to put it on. And trust me, I'm on the OP's side with this, but so far the evidence she needs to make her case looks like it's absent.

Honestly…I wouldn’t message turn up at her door and ask her to remove it, stating all of the reasons why. If she is adamant that it is to stay I would call her bluff and say ok then seen as you have taken this upon yourself , I would like a key for the lock please and while you are at it you can cut one for every other house too as they will want access. Thank you.

Well, what are you paying them for?

This is where it gets confusing, when land and management companies are involved. Yes, the management company is there to oversee the maintenance of the land and leasehold buildings, but they are acting for the land owner, not the people who "pay" them. The reason I put "pay" in inverted commas is because they are in every other sense reimbursing the management company for the works carried out.

Now, if the people paying are also a % share owner of the land, then yes, the management company is working for each of them. But as I keep saying, someone somewhere is the owner of the land and it is they who needs to take up the cause of someone who is chaining-off land so that others who are entitled to use it cannot do so.

Have you tried talking to her?

If I was paying maintenance for a park I
would expect that it wasn’t public. I’m civic minded but wouldn’t feel ok about paying for others.

Well, what are you paying them for? If they are a maintenance company they are responsible for maintaining the roads/paths/park areas in a usable state, and clearly her chaining the gate and putting up private signs prevents the community using them.
I would contact them again, as well as local council, planning and any other people who might help with right of way issues.

But all we have to go on is the OP's word that it's publicly accessible. I'd like to know where that is in writing.

Report it to the council, its a right of way. The fact soneone owns the land is irrelevant. Footpaths over farmland are owned by the farmer, they still cant block them.

This is my point. And I get that the OP says they pay their money to a management company, but somebody somewhere appointed that management company, and they will be acting on behalf of someone, be it a person or company. I do symapthise with the OP's cause, but I am baffled as to how they cannot know exactly who owns the road and the parkland, especially as it's a new-build, as everything would have needed to be known before building the estate took place.

If you’re paying for the park it can’t be a public park?

And also why are you all so passive - knock her door every time you want access.

Or find the estate Facebook page and post about the gate and to knock x number for access

Fall over the chain and threaten to sue?

But who would they be acting on behalf of? No one seems to know who owns the road.

Could you get a solicitor to write a letter requesting that the gate is left open?

I think then you are on your own if they won't help. They should, however, be able to tell you in no uncertain terms who they are managing the road for - in other words the person or company who owns it.

But the point remains, someone owns that road. It's either a freeholder (be it a person or company), or it's each and everyone of you who has a freehold property on the street. And if the latter is the case, you will have documentation to prove this, along with a limited company that's registered with Companies House.

I know you feel like you are going round in circles, and that a lot of what's being said has been repeated, but it really is the case that someone owns the road, if not the council. When you bought the property, you should have been told exactly who owns it. This is what I can't understand; why have you never been told?