Balls Coming Onto Our Property From Private Basketball Court

[TonyEmpson]

When out property was built the developers left the communal Basketball/Football cage for the residents, which is at the end of our garden.
Despite having a 7ft fence we constantly get footballs being kicked onto our property, damaging items in the garden. My partner hates sitting in the garden because as well as the balls coming over we get older kids trying to climb over the fence. It may seem trivial but this can happen 6 times a day. There's constant verbal abuse when we tell them it's the last time today we're going to get it and throw it over.
The owner of the cage is the developers who built the houses, and despite several emails nothing gets done to secure the cage to keep the balls enclosed. Before lockdown another resident threatened to sue for damage, anti social behaviour and invasion of privacy and they put netting over the top, but the kids ripped it apart within days. He now tells us he's in the process of gifting it to the local residents association, who deny they own it.
Any ideas who I can contact officially to sort this problem out.

[ZebuSanctuary]

To prevent them from climbing your fence, a tin of anti-vandal paint should do it.

Don't forget to display a warning notice!

[ToraToraTora]

get a large knife and puncture all the balls.

[TonyEmpson]

Zebusactuary

Already done that and doesn't really stop them, they climb into the empty property next door and climb over that way now. We've had to put the anti climb paint up the full length of the garden fence as well now.

Also doesn't solve the issue of the footballs coming in. If they can secure the cage then none of the other issues will be there.

[bookbinder]

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/print

[Chipchopper]

You're gonna need a bigger fence!
7ft is way too low

[rowanwitch]

I wouldn't normally suggest vandalism but if there are no cameras can the 'community's not hire a mini digger and destroy it themselves.

On a serious note, the change of ownership should go through the land registry, once it belongs to the residents association they can do what they like with it.... If they were really community spirited add a few concrete slopes so it becomes a skate zone.

[ZebuSanctuary]

Since the efforts of your neighbour to secure the cage were spurned, reasoning with the kids seems to be out of the question.

Is there a PCSO on patrol in the area. Talk the issue over with them and ask what would be the best way to go forward.

Going back to preventing them entering via the adjacent property, take a look at the link below. A friend of mine deployed these to deter those who would enter his garden and steal from his shed. There have been no more incidents since! Do not be put off by their 'part' plastic construction. They are razor sharp. Small outlay £ too.

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

You might try this temporary solution assuming ingress into the cage is via a gate, install a padlock.

[ZebuSanctuary]

// get a large knife and puncture all the balls. //

Unfortunately this would be criminal damage :-(

[DarceyK123]

Could you make the fence a bit higher? Maybe something like a trellis?

[lankeela]

Borrow my dogs - they would not only puncture the balls they would probably puncture a few legs as they climbed over.

[ladybirder]

I'd move if it was me. Couldn't cope with that carry on.

[vulcan42]

The spikes ZebuSanctury mentioned work very well. My neighbour and I constantly had footballs coming into our gardens. Instead of one child coming in they all came destroying trellis and plants. They also just sat on the wall but faced inwards so we had to keep the curtains closed. After fitting the spikes they never came in and we came to an agreement that any ball that came in would be left in the front garden for them to collect the following day.