To not see a solution other than not using my garden?

[Cebr]

Or moving (which for various reasons I can't do).

My neighbours, family A (one side - other side are elderly and largely housebound) are arseholes of the highest order, as are their kids. They are pally with other neighbours, family B, between them they have 9 kids who are all pretty poorly behaved.

On a daily basis they ride bikes and scooters in my front driveway which is bad enough but the real issue is in the back garden.
As kids (often with Bs kids as they are in and out of each others gardens and houses constantly) deliberately throw balls, toys and indeed their rubbish into my garden.
They play ball up against my fence constantly (they broke the previous fence)
Let themselves into my garden - the gate is locked but they have climbed the fence before now
When I'm out in the garden they name-call me and my children. Or bang the fence constantly.
They sit on top of the fence and look into my house.

I hardly ever go in the garden now. What was a lovely space (it's a good size about 80ft x 40ft) is now completely overgrown.

I had a gardener round today and they all started banging on the fence. Then standing on it shouting for their ball etc. The guy said 'is it always like this?' and I said sadly yes. Wouldn't blame him for not taking the job!

I have in the past told the children to stop. This resulted in Dad B telling me he would sort me out if I ever spoke to his kids again. Mum and Dad A said kids were just being kids and they were doing no harm.

I contacted the police about the threat from B. They said as nothing had happened they wouldn't get involved. I explained about the kids but as they are all under 13 the advice was I should try not to antagonise the situation ie stay indoors. So that's what I've been doing.

I was hoping one or both families would move as they live in 2 bed houses but this doesn't look like happening anytime soon. I can't move. I would like to use the garden though but their behaviour makes it unbearable.

Is there anything else I can do to make it more tolerable? Or to stop me feeling sick every time I open the door hearing their screaming and banging, and seeing my fence shaking?

Just grow a ramblers rose along the fence. A nice pretty thorny one....

I think -from my parent's/my past experience- that letting small things slip because you are a grown up and generally nice leads to being bullied by idiots.
I do think that at the first sign you have to stand up for yourself. Don't have to be an idiot, just not get pushed around.

I feel such sympathy for you, growing up we lived next door to a pub. It was never an issue until new owners took over and their kids suddenly ruled the area. They would sit on the fence and throw things at our house, constantly kick their balls over etc...

It was awful and made my mum ill, we dreaded summers. In the end we moved and it was the best thing we ever did. I hate those people for driving us out of our lovely family home, but there is no reasoning with people like that. Try and sell and start fresh away from such vile people
Xx

Yes, put in CCTV!
Destroy all balls that are thrown into your garden. Play loud and offensive music. Get the BBQ constantly on the go and burn smelly shit.

Have you any idea who is the LL of the rented house - you said noone cares about the tenants behaviour - does that include the landlord?

@Beekeeper1

You are a genius

Wyatt about those sonic cat alarms, my two kids cannot tolerate them at all. Put them next to the fence and I guarantee the kids won't go near

Getting angry just reading this! Obnoxious bastards! Do not let them run you out of your home... fight them at their own game.

@Beekeeper1
That’s a really good idea.

Why haven’t you installed cctv as previously suggested OP? Systems can be picked up cheaply now. Note you must not record their property which can be seen as harassment and voyeuristic.

Try big over the ear style decent noise cancelling headphones And listen to something you like, music, a podcast and gradually build up the time you spend out there, it’s worth a try. Good luck

Go out and play in your yard. If they start out "baby shark" on repeat on max volume and go back inside. An hour later try to go out again. Shut the music off... If it starts again... Jack the music back up and go back inside. Repeat daily (as many times a day as you want to) until they get the fucking hint🤣

Can you get an alarm with a movement sensor? A piercing noise every time they move/shake the fence might act as a deterrent. Though, it would also be quite annoying.

Plant some pyracantha bushes close to your fence?
Train them narrowly against the fence and they will grow all along
Terrible long thorny prickles on them....
Admittedly they will take a while to grow, unless you can pick up some single tall cheap specimens to train along - say from a market plant stall?

Agree with the comments about getting random males as a “presence”, the sprinkler for the garden etc

(I confess I got my dotty 94 yo MIL to recite some very loud, very long poetry last week in my garden - in similar circumstances 😂)

and I'm a terrible person for wanting to have a few non-panicky days without being constantly on alert about dog? (you do understand how phobias work, right?).

You're a terrible person for maliciously administering drugs to an animal, yes. You could have easily killed it or given it long term painful health problems. It wasn't the dog's fault your were phobic nor what it's owners let or encouraged it do.

The renters do lots of other anti social behaviour (drugs, untaxed/ unroadworthy vehicles, no one cares)

I lost the will to live when reading this statement.

That is terrible. All kids make noise but those children are so rude and are vandals if they broke your fence! Climbing over your locked gate is trespass too though I imagine they wanted to retrieve a ball or something.

The parents are worse. I'd be mortified if that was my kid and try to put things right.

You are becoming a prisoner in your own home. Does the family equally disrespect neighbours on the other side?

In your place I would have a thick,high wall built and a new, high door at the entrance to your garden. However I know that costs.

Does the family equally disrespect neighbours on the other side?

I think the other neighbours are Family B , their partners in crime .
So its Elderly quiet/OP/Family A/Family B

Is your gardener coming back OP ?
A few days of mowing, shredding and whiney power tools might be a treat for them .

My neighbours are obnoxious on both sides and directly opposite. The left hand side are particularly awful, but cowards who don't say anything to my face. They would rather laugh and snigger loudly behind the fence, hope I die of my illness soon and threaten my guests instead. My solution for both sides has been to raise the boundary to the legal limit and get CCTV front and back. The latter is cheap and easy to fit from ebay. It records and phones you if there is suspicious movement so you can look at the camera remotely. All for less than one hundred pounds. You should get wireless headphones as others have suggested, but also plant leylandii around the fence as it grows in no time and is resistant to damage by kids. You should get an uneven surface installed on your front driveway...chippings, sharp stones in concrete or anything else that makes cycling and playing etc difficult. You can make a report about the kids to social services via the nspcc without being identified. There sounds like safeguarding issues in that household. I wish you luck. I have had bad luck with neighbours at my past three homes for various reasons...it really is best to think about moving in the long term. When house viewing, you should pop your head over the wall to look at the neighbours garden and even knock on the door to ask questions about the area. It really can be insightful before you make a financial decision.

pyrocantha. its a bugger. brambles hurt as well, and have nice berries. and grown really fast.

Could you rent your house out and live somewhere else?

Blackberry Bush in our hedge put out massive branches last year, so I tied them along the length of our (6ft High) wall. That stopped the teenagers sitting on it.
Good luck OP, having shit neighbours is hell.

I've lived here for more than 15 years. Neither of these two families were here then, it was a nice street. Mostly older people (the older couple next door retired and sold up, which is when we got lumbered with A. B were a few years later, the nice family in their rented house moved out of the area). It looks like youth club outside my house at times with 10-15 kids (them plus their friends) all on bikes and scooters. There's a park not 5 mins walk away but they never go there despite ours being a relatively busy road (bus route, not a quiet cul de sac!)

I honestly thought they would both have gone by now, sadly it doesn't look like that's happening anytime soon.

Thanks for the suggestions. Hoping I can use some of them. I do already have a camera out the front, doesn't stop them using my driveway as a cycle area (my fault for having a wide driveway and only 1'car...). Will look at getting one for the back. And a big motion activated security light too.

I am going to have to put gates up at the front, it's a ball ache as I like being able to drive straight in. Not sure I can run to electric gates but it would be nice.

Buy one of those machines that emits the noise that only young people can hear

Really feel for you OP, have had problems before too. We live near a school, have had wee sh*it's running on our driveway, throwing stones at the window etc. We got metal gates and fences put up at the front, best money ever spent. Make sure if you can, get a small gate you can walk through so you don't have to keep opening the gates.
At the back you could play classical music loud enough to drown them out! We have a small discreet inside the house connected to an app to the phone, got it on Amazon.