Can a care home be forced to repair their fence?

[rpjjuk]

Hi everyone. There is a care home opposite my house. There is an alley running alongside the care home. The alley is marked as a public right of way. The fences have been damaged in a bad storm and the care home says they are not going to repair it. The fences have nails sticking out from it and are very loose and broken.
Is there any way that they can be forced to repair the fences?
The council say it is not their responsibility.

[des8]

Section 164, clause (1) of the Highways Act 1980 states the following:

Power to require removal of barbed wire

Where on land adjoining a highway there is a fence made with barbed wire, or having barbed wire in or on it, and the wire is a nuisance to the highway, a competent authority may by notice served on the occupier of the land require him to abate the nuisance within such time, not being less than one month nor more than 6 months from the date of service of the notice, as may be specified in it.

The term ‘barbed wire’ has been interpreted to mean anything with spikes or jagged projections and this would include any made aggressive topping or addition to a wall or fence including carpet gripper, broken glass, nails and preparatory products such as plastic and metal spikes.

The term ‘nuisance’ has been interpreted to mean something that is likely to cause injury to people and animals using the highway and most highway authorities consider things that can cause injury lower than 2.4m to be a nuisance.
165Dangerous land adjoining street.

(1)If, in or on any land adjoining a street, there is an unfenced or inadequately fenced source of danger to persons using the street, the local authority in whose area the street is situated may, by notice to the owner or occupier of that land, require him within such time as may be specified in the notice to execute such works of repair, protection, removal or enclosure as will obviate the danger.

(2)A person aggrieved by a requirement under subsection (1) above may appeal to a magistrates’ court.


The fence could (?) be classed as dangerous?

if council decline to take action you could appeal to the magistrate's court

[slainte caragh]

If there is a chance a resident of the Home could be injured on the fencing, it may be worth reminding the managers that they will be held fully accountable for this, and that you feel it is a Safeguarding issue on the grounds of potential neglect (meaning that the managers are willingly putting residents in to preventable risk of harm by not fixing this).

If this doesn't work, I would contact CQC (Care Quality Commission) and report it as a badly maintained Home with the potential to "inflict preventable harm to residents and passers by, and therefore a breach of CQC standards!"

These people (CQC) are every care home's worst nightmare, we were marked down for having an out of date burns pack in a first aid kit we were throwing out. It should have been in the bin, not on the side!

[rpjjuk]

Many thanks to Des3 and Slainte Caragh for the information. I will try the Care Quality Commission first and I will let you know what they say.

Again many thanks for this information. --- Ray