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.

This

I know people who have a gate directly into a local park, from their back garden, and they do this. I would as well if I backed onto a park.

I wouldn’t recommend calling the council, all that would accomplish is them telling your neighbour that someone tattled on them and they have to remove their gate. Do you want to be on bad terms with them?
If they seem to be getting away with it just follow their lead. I really don’t see the harm myself.

Thanks for the responses.
I didn't ask the question to bicker. As for the implied 'busybody' remarks, I don't give a shit what the neighbours do. I wanted to know if I did the same would it be 'legal'.

Why is it a big deal? Who is it hurting/affecting?

We lived in a house with a gate like this. When we moved in it was clear that there was no formal right of access but most houses had the same and no one objected. It was lovely when my daughter was a toddler to be able to take her to the park without having to go by the roadside.

I’m surprised so many people think this is ok. It’s not their land, it belongs to someone else.

For those who keep bleating ‘but whyyyy who is it hurting?’ It’s taking away publicly accessible land from the public. If these people wanted more garden space, they shouldn’t have used theirs. Entitled AF and I’d 100% report them.

I’d just do it. If you ask and they say no then you’ll be stuck, and next door might get into trouble. If you don’t ask, in the unlikely event that the council say anything you can plead ignorance.

My grandma and grandad had a gate into a park and I have happy memories of playing there. I’m glad an unpleasant person like @Beautiful3 (beautiful inside and out?) didn’t report my grandma and grandad for no other reason than being a horrible human being.

It's encroachment. The council here wrote to all homeowners who had done this. They had to rectify everything within a short time frame, or the council would do it themselves and bill them.

Time to get off this Godforsaken website! This is why I’m a misanthrope🙄

They aren’t stopping other people accessing the land , they are using the park like any other user .

Maybe mind your own business and stop worrying what others do.
Nosey neighbours are the worst.

@Pringleface - yes it’s public land so they can access directly from their private land as there’s no right of way issues. I’m assuming we’re talking about a portable gazebo not cemented in therefore alone could pop along to the park and put one up while they have a picnic. Who are you reporting it too? They’re entitled to use the park as much as others.

We have 2 big parks locally and about 70% of homes have gates directly accessing the park.

My mum's old house backed onto a park and had a gate that went straight into the park, so did most of the houses that backed onto it. It was a perk of living there, although did make the houses prone to burglary

We had this is our previous London house and MIL has this now in her house by the sea

So they back onto bushes that are the boundary of the park which they have had to cut down.

Be interesting to know if they had permission.

They’re entitled to use the park. They’re not entitled to cut back all the bushes and trees to create an extra garden extension for themselves.

In terms of the gate, it depends on the rules at the local authority, but where I live, you can’t just put a gate onto someone else’s land without permission. Where it has happened, the homeowner has been told to remove it or pay for a wayleave.

This.

It might be public land but a gate from a private property onto the land with access 24/7 is considered private access, which a council would be unlikely to allow. Someone building a house on Grand Designs was refused permission for a gate directly into Highgate Cemetery (I think) and was refused. He was very angry! But access rules on council land are set by the council. It might not be harming anyone but they can disagree.

Then when you sell just replace the fence without a door!

The fence/gate is on the homeowners land. Many of us are saying this is very normal where we live.

Restricting Public access to the ground? I don't understand your logic ...they could just go round the roadway and put up their picnic gazebo anywhere in the park and enjoy their day and who or why could anyone stop them? It's a public park!

Sorry, but you're wrong. You can put in a gate on your own land if you like so long as you don't use it, but my experience of a similar case or two is that you have zero right of access to adjoining land or even lanes whoever owns it unless you own it, or your deeds or other agreements say you have access. And when it comes to cutting foliage, that's a total no-no. The area could have been left overgrown for environmental reasons, or whatever. There are also H&S aspects to this as well.
A gazebo- well, that would depend on local bye-laws in that park. Some you can, some you can't.

Hi @PToosher . I live next to a park and wondered the same. The fence between me and the park is owned by the council. They have agreed that I can put in a gate, as long as I pay the legal costs of drawing up an agreement that doesn't give me a right of access in the future and doesn't make the council liable e.g for my security due to having the gate.

My last house also backed onto a park. This one was owned by a Borough council, who also owned the fence. Our houses were slightly higher than the park and then shielded by thick bushs. One of our neighbours cut a hole in their fence and created a kind of secret garden that couldn't be seen from the park. I could only see it out of our upstairs windows. Sadly it only lasted about a month, I don't know if another neighbour reported it or the council spotted but they boarded up the hole and made the rest of the fence much more secure. I don't know of anyone who requested to put a gate in, but imagine it would not have been allowed as the park was locked overnight.

A local friend has a house that backs onto the village graveyard, they asked for permission to put in a gate, which would save them time walking to the shops, and were refused access.