The case was reported by The Independent, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail on November 5, 2026. The disagreement involves a narrow, tapering section of land measuring up to 1.4 metres wide beside the neighbouring property in Kirby Bellars. Connor and Pasquire installed a block-paved accessway in 2017, intending to make it easier for larger vehicles to enter the paddock adjoining their home. By 2021, the disagreement had escalated, with the neighbours threatening to cut through and remove the portion of paving that extended onto their property.
A long-running boundary dispute in Leicestershire has ended in a legal defeat for a couple who extended their driveway onto a neighbouring garden to improve access to their horse paddock. Railway expert Dr Piers Connor and his partner, Professor Christine Pasquire, have failed to establish ownership of the disputed strip of land after a First-tier Tribunal rejected their claim under adverse possession laws. Their neighbours, GP Dr Dawn Moore-Elphick and her husband Richard, objected to the development, arguing that the newly paved section encroached on their garden.
The couple argued that they had always understood the disputed accessway to belong to their property. They also argued that the area had been used by vehicles belonging to previous occupants of their home, with parts of the vehicles, including wing mirrors, regularly passing over the disputed section. The ruling also highlighted that the disagreement was fundamentally about access rather than ownership. The couple wanted a wider turning area to make it easier for vehicles to travel between their home and the paddock. The judge acknowledged that the narrow wedge was important to their preferred access arrangement. However, the tribunal heard no expert evidence establishing whether losing the section would make access impossible, more difficult or simply less convenient.
They pointed to a large leylandii hedge that previously marked the edge of the neighbouring garden, saying they had regarded it as the boundary. An earlier covering of stones at the entrance was also presented as evidence of its historical use.