The boss of an award-winning luxury spa ‘blockaded a GP surgery car park with her Bentley in a bitter neighbours’ row, a court has heard.
Dr Reshma Rasheed, 62, is suing property developer turned spa boss, Joy Jarvis, over rights to a narrow alleyway bordering Chapel Street Surgery, in Billericay, Essex.
The drive is used by staff and patients to access the surgery’s car park, but belongs to a piece of land behind it which was purchased by Mrs Jarvis, 74, and her husband Brian, 71, in 2021.
The drive is now a flashpoint in a row which lawyers say has seen GP Dr Rasheed and her neighbours ‘headbutting each other for years’ over the doctor’s rights to use it for access.
At the Central London County Court, Dr Rasheed bid for an injunction after Mrs Jarvis allegedly used her Bentley to ‘blockade’ the car park, effectively ‘landlocking’ it and making it useless.
Dr Rasheed also claims that the couple has made threats through their lawyers to block or tear out her drains, which are underneath the driveway, potentially flooding the medical practice with sewage.
But Mr and Mrs Jarvis claim Dr Rasheed only has the right to use the front portion of the lane and that the only reason she can’t access her car park is because she extended her surgery too far to the rear, effectively blocking her own right of way.
At the Central London County Court last week, Judge Alan Johns was asked to make an injunction banning Mrs Jarvis and her husband from blocking the driveway.
Dr Reshma Rasheed (pictured), 62, is suing property developer turned spa boss, Joy Jarvis, over rights to a narrow alleyway bordering Chapel Street Surgery, in Billericay, Essex
Joy Jarvis, 74, and her husband Brian, 71, are spa owners and veteran property builders, the court heard
The court heard the couple are veteran property builders, with Mrs Jarvis telling the judge she has been involved in property development for 40 years.
Dr Rasheed purchased the small family surgery in Chapel Street, Billericay, in 2006, having earlier been made a GP partner there.
The warring parties first clashed after Mr and Mrs Jarvis bought a former builders’ yard behind Dr Rasheed’s neighbours’ house in 2021.
The yard, which the couple plan to develop into housing, is accessed from the main road via the driveway, which Dr Rasheed and her predecessors have long used as an access to the car park behind the surgery.
Her barrister, Rupert Myers, told the judge that she has a right of way over the drive to get to the back of the surgery under a 1973 conveyance and that it had been used for over 40 years by the time Mr and Mrs Jarvis bought the land next door.
‘Almost immediately upon acquiring the property, the defendants took issue with the claimant’s use of the driveway to reach her car park,’ he said.
‘Shortly after their purchase, the defendants and in particular the second defendant Mrs Jarvis asserted that the claimant had no right to use the full length of the driveway to access the car park.
‘On 24 August 2021, the second defendant parked her Bentley on the driveway in such a manner as to block the claimant and her patients from driving into or out of the surgery’s car park.
Dr Rasheed purchased the small family surgery (pictured) in Chapel Street, Billericay, in 2006, having earlier been made a GP partner there
‘This deliberate obstruction of the right of way caused significant disruption to the surgery’s operations.’
‘The second defendant’s blockade of the driveway entirely prevented the claimant and her patients from exercising the right of way to the surgery.
‘That interference was deliberate, it was done on the very day the defendants’ counsel had warned of clearing and fencing off the land, indicating a calculated attempt to deny access.’
He said the couple had only ‘ceased obstruction when faced with legal action’ and have ‘explicitly stated their intention to fence off’ the part of the drive they say Dr Rasheed has no rights over.
‘If carried out, such fencing would physically bar the claimant and her invitees from reaching the car park by car, effectively landlocking a crucial part of the surgery’s premises,’ he said.
‘This is not a trivial or technical infringement.’
He said the neighbours had also clashed over Dr Rasheed performing works on her drains under the driveway, which Mr and Mrs Jarvis claim went beyond her rights under a ‘drainage easement.’
‘The threats to “block or remove” the surgery’s drains are concerning,’ said the barrister.
‘Obstructing a drainage easement is as much a legal wrong as obstructing a path, it would disrupt the flow in the drains and could cause sewage backup or flooding on the dominant land.
‘It cannot be overlooked that this is a medical practice that serves the community.’
Dr Rasheed is suing for a judicial declaration that her right of way over the driveway extends for around 30 metres from the main road, allowing her and her patients and staff to reach the car park.
However, Mr and Mrs Jarvis claim her right of way over the driveway extends only for 26m, which would not allow cars to reach the car park.
Their barrister, Kevin Leigh, told the judge the dispute had been fraught, adding: ‘These parties have been embroiled in headbutting one another for a number of years.’
He said expert evidence showed that the GP’s rights extend to only around 26m worth of the driveway, which had been enough for drivers to get to the car park prior to the surgery’s rear extension being built in 2018.
Prior to the extension work, visitors had been able to drive down the lane and turn left into the car park without going past that 26m mark and all the way to the end of the lane, he said.
‘The expert opinion is consistent with the original length of the surgery,’ he said.
‘It enabled vehicles to access the rear. There was no need to use the whole length of the defendants’ drive.
‘This need has only arisen because of the large extension of the surgery.
‘Furthermore, the defendants’ registered title does not show the right of way along the whole length of the road.
‘Dr Rasheed is not allowed to treat the right of way as if she owns it and install things in it, even if they improve the enjoyment of her property.
‘If the defendants succeed, they are entitled not to have their rights trampled over and not to have their enjoyment of their development prevented or materially interfered with.’
However, Mr Myers for Dr Rasheed said that drivers had been able to drive down the lane from the main road to the car park since 1975, ‘without hindrance and without any objection from the servient owners,’ long enough to establish a right.
‘The driveway has never had a gate or fence part-way down its length to mark an ‘end’ of the right of way, as confirmed by historical aerial photographs which show a clear, unobstructed route to the car park,’ he said.
Mrs Jarvis and her husband own the Glasshouse Retreat, a wellness spa where visitors are invited to ‘absorb yourself with holistic wellness’.
The retreat, which features a natural swimming pond, outdoor ‘wellness dome’ and 21 rooms in the Essex countryside, has won two Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards, as well as other awards in the spa industry.
After a three-day trial, Judge Johns reserved his decision on the dispute until a later date.
