New neighbour has put a gate in back fence

[PToosher]

Houses on our side of our street back onto a park. A new neighbour moved in a year or so ago and had a lot of building work done that took up a lot of their garden, so they now have very little garden for their several children to play in.

While walking my dog through the park recently I noticed that the bushes and undergrowth in the park to the rear of their garden have been cut back hard and there is a brand new gate through the 6 foot fence from their back garden into the park. At the weekend I noticed the family had a gazebo set up in the park, the gate was open and they were apparently treating it as an extension of their garden.

Having previously had a problem when we sold a house that had a long established access gate into the car park of an adjacent pub, I'm wondering if you can just do this?
Because I don't think you can and I'm pretty sure if we all did it there would be some comeback from the council.

We back on to a park and 90% of the houses have done this. We don’t as we rent, but most have

Very common where I live in Ireland.

AFAIK there is no legal requirement to have a fence, so can’t see why a gate would be illegal.

Does it affect you? Are they stopping other people from using that area of the park. Definitely CF. I would probably report them.

I wouldn’t have thought that was possible legally but 🤷‍♀️

It’s not clear what the issue is though? They aren’t giving themselves access to private property.

I’d definitely do this if I backed on to a park! Who wouldn’t?

Perfectly legal to put a gate on your own property opening onto public land. They technically don’t have to have a fence at all and could just leave it open! The gazebo is another matter and will be dependent on the council. Why does this bother you?

This is relatively common I thought.

Very normal. Seen it many times in London

I can’t see why it would be illegal but maybe I’m missing something 🤷🏽‍♀️

@JayAlfredPrufrock why not? You're generally not obliged to have a fence, so why would a gate be an issue?

it's not generally breaking any laws to put up a gazebo in a park.

🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

We have this - our house backs onto a park and has a gate as do all our neighbours. In London.

No-one else has in the 60 years the houses have been here.
There are restrictive covenants regarding our property borders - no fences or other enclosure allowed on the front or side lawns.

I assume the issue is the cutting back of bushes in the park rather than the gate. Legally isn't that vandalism? You could tell the council but don't know how much they would care.

Why does it bother you?

It will probably depend on the local by-laws.

The only problem I can see is if the bushes they cut down are part of the park and not on their land. It may be they are part of a wildlife area and I imagine the council wouldn't be pleased to have them cut down, especially if everyone on the street got in on the act.

Apart from that, the park is for the public to use and they are part of the public. The gazebo is a temporary tent thing isn't it? Not a permanent structure. They could have done that with or without the gate.

Came to say this. Surely the gate is up to them.
Cutting back vegetation on council land is not up to them.

When we bought a house backing on to a village hall car park our neighbours had a gate in their back fence that opened on to the car park/field (was there when they bought the house) they told us there was an almighty fuss about it and they had been told there was no right of way and must not use the gate! Apparently someone who ran the village hall had come marching round and told them they would take legal action over it. So when neighbours added a new fence they removed the offending gate. I do know it said in our deeds no right of way so I guess previous owners of neighbours house had decided to chance it and see what happens

I think I saw once that the issue isn't the gate, you can do what you like with the fence, it's that you don't actually have right to access the land via it. (I think it was one of those property development programmes)

I'd be worried about security if I was them, but maybe the people who frequent parks near me aren't quite as civilised as in your area! But beyond that I'd struggle to get worked up about it and if it was a very nice park I'd probably be jealous. I can't imagine how this affects you negatively OP?

Yes, this is part of the issue.
Another neighbour enquired about cutting back the tall bushes to the rear of his garden, asked the council and the was flat denied permission.

It almost certainly depends on the council if they own the park.
Unless it is in the deeds that you have a right of access, you have no legal right of access. The council, as landowner, could forbid it, or impose a one-off fee or yearly charge. This came up for a friend who had a garden adjoining a (public) drive on National Trust property. Lots of people had gates onto the drive, some had had them for many years; one year the NT sent letters to all the residents- either pay them a fee, or close up their gate. And yes, they were within their rights to do that.
Your neighbours have zero rights to cut anything in the park, that really is out of order by any standards- I suspect if the council finds out they will be in trouble.

And restrictive covenants that cover the front don’t usually cover the back of properties. That more to do with keeping the ‘look’ of the street.

but… why does it matter? They could walk round and put up a gazebo in the park. Surely it’s a perk of backing onto it?