I have a communal garden at the back of our house. only accessed from the houses that back onto it. 20 houses have access to this communal garden. there is a gate, with 2 padlocks that council use to come in and mow it. i let my 6 yr old play football with the 6 other kids aged 7-11. And i let my nearly 2 year old in there.
so, there have been some 'problems' recently. and now the council have said that we are allowed access rights only.
can i fight this ? children have played there for 40 years, as instructed by the council.
if it was employment law you could say thta it was 'custom and practice', i.e. we've been doing this for 15 years, so let it continue. but does thta also work in this situation.
so: can i summarise:
1969, children told not to play in streets, kicking fotball against garages, told to play in communal garden. my neighbour said in 1969 he received letter from council telling chidlren to play there.
2004, 1 neighbour complained about older boys kicking footballs, presumably hitting her fence ? but there was a petition that i also signed (although ds1 was only 6 mths at the time, i wanted him to be able to play int he future). the council said that a no ball games sign that had been put up, which had prompted the whole thing, would remain, but that football was fine.
of the 20 or so residents, 1 clearly hates football. 5 of us want it, including me, and the other 15 are pretty apathetic.
so, now 2010. same neighbour complains. then denies complaining. council woman sends 4 letters , has innumerate phone calls from all sorts. one of her letters says we can't play. then the next says we can. then the next says that she has passed it to her legal dept, because she 'has spent alot of time on this'. she sounds fed up. i am too. but then i think, this is your job. her letters are factually incorrect, often, but only on minor items.
my says, she's just had enough of this and passed it onto legal. the letter came back, something like 'originally, you were only given access rights'. i.e. no playing at all from now on. seems extreme.
so, shes' had enough and go tot he extreme of saying that you are only now allowed to use it for crossing over to visit someone else ?
but i want my ds1(6) and ds2(under 2) to be able to play there.
it is invalueable to me. in this day and age, when we are all paedophile scared, i let my kids run around, playing ( hopefully football, but if not allowed atleast just playing) with the other neighbours kids.
what can i/ what do i do ?