Garden turned in to a muddy battleground (From Stroud News and Journal)

Garden turned in to a muddy battleground

CONFUSION over a right of way has left an Ebley woman and a property developer in a right muddy muddle.

Nicky Neckles was horrified to discover her garden fence had been ripped back and a 'private, do not enter sign' sign removed last Monday so that a digger could get from one site to another.

Ms Neckles has insisted the land is hers but developers Chelbury Homes Ltd who are building canal-side houses at Ebley's Frome Gardens said this week that ownership of the land was a 'little murky.'

Ms Neckles complained to the developers after the digger's caterpillar tracks churned up the north bank of the canal.

It has left the mangled patch of land which Ms Neckles had always thought of as her garden has become a quagmire flooded by the canal.

Though Ms Neckles' deeds show her land running right down to the water's edge there is some dispute over whether she owns the land or not.

The day after the incident she received an e-mail headed 'RE: Garden Invasion' from Chelbury Homes apologising for causing her distress but it argued the land was not in fact hers.

The e-mail read: "We understand that the land we have traversed is not owned by you or us but by the Company of Proprietors of the Stroud Water Navigation.

"As you may recall we will be carrying out the widening of the canal on behalf of the company and this will encompass 15m from the original railings on the south side of the canal, this includes the strip of land between the edge of the existing canal water and the end of your wall."

The developer declined to comment further on the matter yesterday when telephoned by the News & Journal.

But Neville Nelder, chairman of the Company of Proprietors of the Stroudwater Navigation has met with Ms Neckles and a representative of the developer at the site.

For the moment Mr Nelder is sitting on the fence over the matter of ownership. He said: "It's not clear cut at this stage.

"The deeds do show their Ms Neckles' and her neighbour's land going down to the water's edge but that isn't necessarily the water's edge as you see it now but as the canal used to be.

"And deeds have been known to be wrong in the past. But if they are shown to have legal entitlement to the land so be it."

He added that he was convinced the land had belonged to the canal company at some stage and he hopes the truth will surface when the company's ongoing process of registering all the land it believes it owns reaches the Ebley site.

Ms Neckles said she had been talking to Chelbury about the possibility of selling her home but she is now so angry about what has happened she is digging her heels in and staying put.

"Even if it's eventually proven that the canal company does own the land I think it's incredibly disrespectful to just drive across it without any consultation," she said.