A bizarre High Court parking row has left a Burnham-On-Sea man facing a legal bill of thousands of pounds.
Howard Rhys Jones may now be unable to park in the garage of his Oxford Street home after losing a claim to right of way over a small area of hard standing owned by his neighbour Chris Scott.
He was this week cleared of accusations that he had sawn down wooden posts erected to protect Ms Scott’s land, and was described as an honest witness by Mr Justice Silber.
But the judge rejected Mr Jones’s plea that he had a right to drive his car over the 5.3mx2.2m patch of land needed to swing into his garage.
In his squatters’ rights case, Mr Jones argued he had acquired a right of way because the previous owners had used the patch of ground, necessary to swing into the garage, for 20 years without complaint.
However, Mr Justice Silber rejected his case after ruling that he and previous owners of his home “were unable to use the hard-standing or the land on which it was constructed prior to 1987” and ordered him to pay legal costs.
The court heard there was a fracas in June last year when posts erected by Ms Scott to protect the hard-standing were sawn through and the chain flung away – for which she held Mr Jones responsible. But the judge dismissed her claim for damages.
