Electric fence across right of way

Hi

I have recently come across a situation where a disabled person has to travel through a right of way to get to his property.( he can drive an adapted car)
this right of way goes through a farmers property, and recently this disabled driver has encountered electric fence across his right of way, the driver has to get out to remove it, not an easy task for him,this electric wire is there to help the farmer control cattle at times, while this may be required for a short time, the farmer lets it there for ages, causing the road to get very dirty, which makes it slippery, also stops him going for short trips on his wheelchair.

does anyone have any idea how best to resolve this situation.
the farmer wants it there for his cattle!!!!!
i suspect he may have plans to see if he can put a stop to this right of way,and buy the property.

while a right of way can not be blocked the person only appears to have a right to pass and repass through this farmers property,

I am wondering could one look at health and safety laws with a view to resolving the situation?

The farmer has a business, his business is currently putting this person at risk of injury etc. No safety statement was ever shown to this person,

he has a concern that he might have to drive his wife to the doctor some time and wont be able to get across this obstacle,

any ideas anyone ?

Re: farmer causing difficult for disabled person, any ideas

if there was no fence before on this right of way, the farmer cannot legally put one up now. The disabled person would get a good hearing in court.

Re: farmer causing difficult for disabled person, any ideas

thanks

Re: farmer causing difficult for disabled person, any ideas

Before people rush to court might it not be a good idea to speak to the farmer.

To be fair if he needs to move cattle accross the right of way he needs a temporary fence to guide them.More than likely he carries on with his jobs and forgets to remove it.

A word with him and possibly a suggestion to purchase a couple of sprung electrified handles may pruduce a better result than steaming in and taking him to court.

Re: farmer causing difficult for disabled person, any ideas

the farmer wants it there for his cattle!!!!!
I'm not being smart but: what would you expect the farmer to do ? Leave his cattle out onto the road?
It may be as Dogsbody said, and the farmer just forgets to remove the fence.

Speaking to the farmer is more likely to give an amicable outcome than going and spouting off about Health and Safety regulation. It is also unlikely that the farmer would go around brandishing a safety statement at his neighbours either. This just does not happen in rural Ireland.

Living in the countryside often involves having to deal with temporary fences, noises from domestic animals, smells from domestic animals, tractors crossing the roads, machinery noise during harvest etc.
That's just the way it is.

These two are neighbours, and being confrontational will probably not maintain good relations. Chances are that this farmer has been moving his cattle for decades, and perhaps your friend needs to be sensitive to this too.

Dealing with this informally over a cup of tea would be my advise.

Nicola

Re: farmer causing difficult for disabled person, any ideas

NicolaM said:

I'm not being smart but: what would you expect the farmer to do ?

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I'd expect him to do whatever he did before he put the electric fence in place over the right-of-way.

I don't think the claim of discrimination under the Equal Status Acts would apply in this case, as the farmer is not selling or providing a service to the disabled person.

The choice of whether to talk to the farmer first or the solicitor first will depend on the circumstances. In theory, it might well be possible to sort this out amicably, but if (as appears possible from the details provided) the farmer is making a landgrab to eliminate the right-of-way, I wouldn't waste any time in getting the legal eagles involved.

Re: farmer causing difficult for disabled person, any ideas

My understanding is that a right of way can not be obstructed, it is now almost impossible for this person to get to his property, and he did speak to the neighbour. Nothing has improved or changed since the conversation. I hear it seems to have worsened.