A COUPLE have spoken of their upset and frustration after a long-standing arrangement about access to the back of their house was stopped.

Jameala Michaela and her husband Wahid Zaman have hit out at Hanson school over the wrangle.The pair live on King’s Road and the family property, which they’ve lived in for six years, is one of two which had access to the rear via the Goals Bradford five-a-side premises.

As part of this, they had a key to the gate at the bottom of the access road and say the agreement ran “seamlessly” until December 2018 when they began to receive solicitors’ letters on behalf of Hanson school, telling them to return the key.

One said: “Your property is adjacent to premises owned by Hanson but leased by them to Goals Soccer Centres by a long lease dated 23 June 2009.

“The Goals premises are used as football pitches which Goals hire (outside school hours) to the general public. At the entrance to the Goals premises from King’s Road is a metal gate which is kept locked overnight and when Goals is not open. Both Goals and our client, quite properly, have a key to the gate’s lock. Our client has been informed that you may also have a key to the lock. Since your property has no right of access over the Goals premises, this has come as some surprise.”

The letter asked for the return of the key and to stop using the Goals site as a means of access.

After this letter, both Councillor David Ward (Lib Dem, Bolton and Undercliffe) and Bradford East MP Imran Hussain wrote to the school about the situation, asking if a meeting could be held.

Another solicitors’ letter, from April this year said the school was not trying to be “unnecessarily difficult”, but continuing to allow access to the Goals premises “and from there access to Hanson creates an unacceptable and unnecessary safety risk to those lawfully attending Hanson including its pupils”.

It then warned that a fence would be erected around the “entirety of the Hanson estate boundary” during the summer holidays - which has now happened - and the lock and padlock to the gate would be changed.

Mrs Michaela, who works for the NHS, said they had always had a good relationship with Goals, the nearby Pulse gym and Hanson, and had maintained the area behind the property, but they had been told they had no legal access to the land.

She said: “It’s just made life so much harder. It was unnecessary, I don’t know what they achieved.

“Because there’s been no dialogue we’re still no wiser as to why this has occurred.

“We’re having to look at other ways of dealing of with this and possibly moving.”

She added: “If they met us and realised we are not here as an enemy, we are here to look after the property.”

The couple fear it will now cause issues with parking at the front of the house, access for disabled family members and the value of the house.

Hanson headteacher Richard Woods said: “The safety of our students is our top priority which is why we need to make sure that the perimeter of the school grounds is secure.”