Ok any legal brains out there can you help?

Husband went up to feed our horses today in a field that we rent on the outskirts of Norwich.

When he got there he found a group of 200-300 merrily sledging down the hill in the field.  He asked them to leave as they had laid fences flat whilst getting in.  All the gates have locks on them to prevent access.  He received nothing but abuse and snowballs and they refused to leave.

Even when told that once the horses had finished feeding they may be in danger of the horses hurting them.

The police were called, and we were told unless we saw anyone actually damaging the fences or damaging on of our vehicles or assaulting any of us, there was nothing they could do to get them to leave.

We were then left to it, and had to stand there for the rest of the day to keep a check on the fences to prevent our horses straying onto roads.

Surely we have some rights to expect the police to help us in that situation. 

I have no objections to anyone enjoying themselves but not in fields where there is livestock and when fences are being damaged.

How would they feel if I proceeded to go into their gardens and build a snowman or throw snowballs. I forgot to say these were a mixture of Adults, children and teenagers and the abuse from the adults was just as bad as the teenagers!!!!

Surely the law is the law and we deserve the same protection for our property as anyone else.

Any ideas??

By the way we have now decided that the land will not be rented anymore and it will most probably now go for building, so they have shot themselves all in the foot and won't have a little bit of the countryside in a suburb of Norwich.

Jayne

Sorry I can't help, but how infuriating!! I would have gone mad.

You could always put a territorial stallion in there for a while....:D :D

The temptation was there Chloe, but unfortunately with our asses of laws, think we might be libel then!!!

We did have a bull on there once , put signs on the gate and still had to rescue a football team of young lads training on there, as they had come in over the fence and hadn't seen the sign!!!!!

We were livid and damned cold as well, standing out there freezing for hours.

what about electric fencing?

Trouble is its an 18 acre field, take lots of fencing to go round that, plus not sure the hooligans wouldn't disconnect it.

We don't have any choice but to bring them home methinks.

It will mean not so much grazing as we only have 8 acres at home, but thats life.

Yeah, we've got 14 acres here and it would take a lot of electric fencing - cost a fortune which you shouldn't have to spend. Its ridiculous, my horses would have a fit if a bunch of strangers wandered into their field.... they'd have to face my chestnut mare though and she doesn't do strangers :D :D ;)

To be honest my lot acted out of character, but then they were feasting most of the time.

I would have loved to have seen the mass exodus if the two youngster had started careering about.

Although as we said afterwards thank god they didn't else we might have had a broken leg or something on the ice.

very true - I haven't eve dared bring mine into the yard its been so icy...i'm worried sick they might slip.

I am hoping it clears tomorrow though, got the equine dentist coming (should be fun - not!)

Not a law expert at all :) But I think that this is to do with trespass, which is a dodgy area and I think that there is very little that the police can do :(  A bit similar to squatting perhaps - where you have to take out a civil action to evict people. But I may be wrong.

Not much help - poor you :(

Daisy

The annoying thing with trespass is that they can sue you if they injure themselves on your property
If you erected a spikey fence for example when you knew people tried to access the field ( whether they had rights to or not)then you would be the one liable :(

So that basically rules out the fencing that is there, which is barbed wite Lel.

That has doubly made up my mind, we will give up the lease.

Is it only me but do our laws have any real sense at the moment.

Not sure how barbed wire is regarded by law to be truthful but if you had a wooden fence for example and you put nails sticking out of the top or glass to deliberately hurt someone then you would be liable .

Be interesting to find out about barbed wire. As that is the only recognised stock proof fencing for cattle.

Mind wouldn't be at all surprised if it is the same as it seems to me that everything I think is right is wrong. lol

With the "Right to Roam" laws coming up it's very much a case of "Whats mine is mine and whats your's is mine as well!" I can see so much trouble coming with the trendy townies tottering about in high heels over farm land!!

Sorry Jayne but it seems to be a sign of the times. :(

Best wishes, John

Hi jayne, i have done a link for barbed wire laws here i hope it helps :)

barbed wire

Jayne, you would'nt believe what some people will get up to, I have permission to work my dogs on several farms where i live. I have had kids & grown ups riding motor bikes across the crops, of course they have to break down the fences/gates to get in there... but like you say, if you try to do anything, you just get abuse.. Then we get huge gangs of lads with greyhounds & Lurchers killing everything in sight... You have my full sympathy Jayne, I don't know what you can do.

Geoff :(

Hi,

The police could have asked them to leave.  There's all sorts of common laws that cover this sort of thing and I think the best course of action would have been for the police to ask them to leave - they certainly have the power to do so.  Maybe it was coming to the end of the shift or their kebabs were getting cold?  The damage is more difficult.  While they could have arrested everyone on 'suspicion' of causing it, realistically they are never going to prove who did it so what's the point for them.  Best advice I can give you is rent another field - in another police area!  :)

Trespass is a civil matter and so the police don't have any powers if no other laws have been broken :(

Daisy