Elderly couple in celebrity magnet village sue wellness coach in fight to mow lawn

The couple say that all changed when their new ‘energy healer’ neighbours moved in. An elderly couple are suing their wellness guru neighbour for blocking access to their front lawn. Long-time residents of pretty Ditchling village in East Sussex, Barry and Sarah Dean say they have for years used a right of way over part of their neighbours’ land to bring their mower and wheelbarrows round so they can easily tend their front lawn and keep it "looking smart".

But they claim that all changed when new neighbours - wellness coach and "energy healer" Claire White and her partner Bidjan Nathan - gated off the access, preventing the older couple getting to their lawn. Mr Nathan, 57, and Mrs White, 49, claimed their neighbours had no right to cross the land attached to their £500,000 home, telling them instead to drag their mower through the house or down awkward garden steps on the Deans’ own property.

The case has now reached court, with retired financial advisor Mr Dean, 75, and his former estate agent wife, 70, a pillar of the Ditchling Horticultural Society, suing their neighbours for blocking the right of way, demanding they be allowed through to mow the lawn. Giving evidence at Central London County Court, Mr Dean told Judge Mark Raeside KC that dragging the heavy mower down outside steps at his Sandpit Cottage home - valued online at about £900,000 - always left him with a "few bruises.".

The judge heard the Deans moved into their sprawling village home in High Street, Ditchling, nearly 40 years ago, while Ms White, an "empowerment and wellbeing coach" who also offers "energy healing," moved into the £500,000 house next door with her partner in 2007. Ditchling, an affluent Sussex village nestled near the foot of the South Downs, has been labelled a "celebrity magnet," with famous faces including Zoe Ball, The Snowman creator Raymond Briggs and Dame Vera Lynn having made it their home.

A map of Ditchling:. The Deans’ barrister, Michael Ranson, told the court that they had always used a "right of way" over a strip of the neighbouring property’s land to access their front garden. However, after Mr Nathan and Mrs White moved in, they went on to install a gate at the street end of the access route, creating a flashpoint for future problems, which came to a head during the Covid lockdown, he said.

“On December 23 2020, the defendants locked the street gate and have refused to give the claimants a key, code or other means of opening the street gate,” he said. Around 18 months later, they went on to install another gate blocking off the disputed land where it adjoins the Deans’ garden, sparking their court claim to access. The barrister said the older couple’s use of the access strip is vital to them in getting their lawnmower, wheelbarrows and other garden equipment to their front lawn to keep it "smart" in summer months.

“The disputed right of way is important to them because it’s the only means of vehicular access to the front of their property and the only convenient means of taking equipment such as lawnmowers into the garden at the front of the house,” he told the judge. “The Deans, including through their gardeners, regularly exercised the disputed rights of way without complaint from anyone - including the defendants - between 1987 and 2020.

“Vehicular access was used once or twice a year, but pedestrian access was approximately weekly outside the winter months.”. He said the gate through the new fence bordering the Deans’ garden has been designed so that it only opens from their neighbours’ side of the boundary. “Somebody standing in the Deans’ garden is not able to open the new gate," he said. "From time to time the defendants have also blocked the disputed right of way by parking cars on it, erecting gazebos and putting wooden and metal planters on the route of the disputed right of way.".

But for Mr Nathan and Mrs White, barrister Richard Bowles argued that the Deans have no right of way over his clients’ property and had only started using it regularly after the wellness guru and her partner had it resurfaced in June 2020. After that the older couple began crossing the disputed land with their lawnmower and wheelbarrow, as well as Mr Dean using it to get to the High Street to buy his morning newspaper, he said.

Other routes to the front garden were available to the Deans, he continued. "It is notable that this claimed right of way is not the only access to the front part of the claimants’ garden, and there is access both from the house into the claimants’ front garden, as well as access around the sides of the house to get to the front part of the claimants’ garden, without the need to go through the house," he said.