Morning all.
Our cottage has a front path which runs past our front door and through our garden. It borders the back of some other cottages gardens and the cottage occupants have rights to access the path and use it for taking bins out, access etc. When we moved in we noticed that one cottage had a gate onto the path which was in disrepair, quite low and that their fence was falling down. We knew our dogs would be straight through it so we erected a post and chicken wire fence in our garden which ran alongside the path on our side. We can get onto the path via a gate and the neighbours have uninterrupted access to the path. We even placed the fence a foot or so further away from the path so that the access was wider than the path to make it easier to use.
Yesterday the neighbours called me over while I was outside. They have asked us to move the fence so that it runs further along, so they can more easily access their fence if the want to repair it. I agreed to this straight away, I have in no way been difficult about their access.
They have recently removed their hedge so that their garden now completely overlooks the path and our garden. The neighbours proceeded to point out that now the hedge is gone, our garden is their view, and that they would appreciate it if we could keep their view tidier. Specific things were pointed out such as a compost bag, a child's plastic chair that looked "dumped", some dogs toys and a bag of garden rubbish Id bagged up but not taken round to the bin yet. I was asked why we don't use the old green house which is a storage space and not used for growing (we have a larger one round the back of the garden!) and generally expected to hop to it and tidy up. The female neighbour "joked" that she would be doing an inspection later to check if I'd picked everything up.
I want to stress that these items were not up against the path, but in our garden. We generally keep the house and garden visitor ready but not immaculate as we are busy, and have a take us as you find us approach to visitors who pop round. We have livestock, DCs, dogs and both work/study full time. Our gardens are tidy and mowed but will inevitably have children's toys, feed sacks, hay and dog toys around.
So wwyd? DH wants to erect a solid fence pronto. I am avoiding going out there whilst also being tempted to pile up a load of pallets round there for storage and "accidentally" block their view!
There were also comments made about our dogs, chickens and ducks but as the birds are kept on part of our land that is not within sight of their "view" and a good distance away from them (nearly an acre) I'm inclined to ignore that. We aren't noisy or difficult neighbours and have always been very accommodating but this seems incredibly cheeky. Her justification for the request to keep the garden tidy was based on the fact that we "have all space" whilst they "only have this little bit". They are retired and sitting outside a lot at the moment with the nice weather so I'm hoping for rain soon!
Thoughts? Advice? How would you handle this? I will provide a diagram if requested 😁