It's a parking one!

[Lola49]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help. So we own a property with the front door very short path then straight onto a road. Grass on either side of the pathway. Neighbour has very large car & parks it directly in front of the path to the house blocking access to the path forcing us to walk around their car across the grass to access the door.
We have asked this person to shift up or down a couple of feet - there is room but I think they have parked there for years & thinks they've got a right to park there (we've recently moved),
we've explained that we are struggling with access (getting things in & out etc) & don't want to damage their car whilst doing so, , they say this is a highway & anyone can park there despite the access, also Suggesting that we should just go through the garden rather than use the path.

We spoke to this person again in the hope that they' might have missed our point but they were so unpleasant & abusive that we called the police who recorded the incident as harassment, given derogatory remarks they made. They don't know we called police we are worried it'll make things worse.

So we're of the understanding that we have a right to access however they clearly don't think this is the case. My query is, how do we best resolve this without moving preferably?
We're thinking that we could put a fence around the small garden & a gate at the foot of the path thereby marking out the land so to speak. There's no room by the way between the path & where this person parks their car to walk, so they have to walk on our garden to get out of their car. So actually a fence might help as they might not be able to park up so close to the property as they do now.

Police are sympathetic but at this stage we're holding off their input simply because we're hoping this person will have second thoughts & decide just to park either side of the entrance to the house, police said they'd help resolve it if they need to. We also contacted council on police advice, see if there's anything they can or will do. But I'm not expecting them to work any miracles.

They suggested that we put a note on the door politely requesting that people leave access via pathway, see what happens, & if they continue we will put a fence around the garden, which we were going to do anyway. My fear now though is that they will continue to block the gate anyway making it hard for us to get out or in.
has anyone else been in this position? How did you resolve it?

[wales01man]

Is their car parked on the highway or the pavement?

[Lola49]

No pavement at all, house just leads directly onto street so they park in front of the access point & block it,
wondering whether we should just put a fence around the small garden area & buttress a gate where the little pathway is, but then worried that they'd still block the access gate. Hmmm

[Lola49]

But we're going on the premise that we're allowed unfettered access rights. Thinking of getting fire service out for an assessment maybe see what they say?

[des8]

Rule 243 of the Highway Code:

DO NOT stop or park:
in front of an entrance to a property (except when forced to do so by stationary traffic).

I would erect my fence and gate and take it from there.