A Reform-led council that placed 54 giant Lego-style blocks outside an elderly woman’s home after she won a legal fight over her garden gate also put her son 'under surveillance' and blocked his requests for information, emails show.
Helene Ball, 81, won a three-year legal fight with Derbyshire County Council after it set a fence in concrete in front of her garden gate in 2023 after she and her family had used that route out the back of their home for nearly six decades.
After the gate was removed, giant Lego-style concrete blocks then appeared outside her home, which backed on to the council-owned car park. Her son David Ball had been researching the case on her behalf to try and get her access reinstated.
Emails now show that an officer at the council, which is led by Reform UK after it won 42 of the 64 seats last May, told staff at its record office not to give any documents to Mr Ball.
He also asked employees to tell him whenever Mr Ball visited, what time he arrived and what information he had asked for, according to internal communications.
The emails from Allen Shepherd, the council's head of estates, corporate property, corporate services and transformation, were disclosed following a data subject access request – where an individual can request a copy of information held about them by an organisation.
Derbyshire County Council later dumped giant 'Lego' blocks outside her home in Matlock
Emails appear to show the council tried to frustrate David Ball's efforts to gather information for his mother Helene's legal fight. She is pictured in her garden in front of the gate
An aerial view of the huge blocks installed by the council outside her home
Mr Ball said: 'When I received the Subject Access Request material and realised they had been tracking my visits, sharing my emails, and accessing my private information, my stomach sank – I felt physically sick.
'Allen Shepherd was the very council officer who instructed colleagues to block my mother's gate in 2023, and he was now directing colleagues to stop providing me information because it could undermine the council's case.
'This is Derbyshire, not North Korea. No resident should ever find themselves being monitored by their own council for simply asking questions.'
Mr Ball was carrying out research on behalf of his mother after she found herself at the centre of a legal fight with the council over access from her back garden.
She had returned home one morning in April 2023 to find a metal fence had been installed over her back garden gate.
The gate led to an adjoining council-owned car park, but Mrs Ball, who has lived at the house in Matlock since 1967, said she and her family had used the route unopposed for almost 60 years.
The fence which started the three-year legal dispute
The 2ft-high bricks line the narrow road behind her property and the grass verge alongside her garden wall.
Mrs Ball argued her continued access amounted to prescriptive rights to access the route and a judge later ruled in her favour – with the access now being added to the deed for the land.
The council was also ordered by the courts to pay Mrs Ball's costs of around £50,000 and to ensure her pedestrian and vehicular access is not impeded again.
Weeks after the judgment was handed down, Mrs Ball was shocked to then discover 54 huge Lego-style blocks placed outside her home.
They were placed there by the council ostensibly to reinstate Mrs Ball's access after her resounding legal victory but only served to distress her further.
Now emails appear to show the council tried to frustrate Mr Ball's efforts to gather information for their legal fight.
He was specifically trying to find out about signage put up at the car park over the years as it may have been important to their claim for prescriptive access.
In one email, Mr Shepherd said to the council's corporate records manager: 'We are currently in litigation with Helena Ball [sic] and her son David Ball is acting on her behalf.
'The Council are not obligated to provide any of this information, therefore please can I ask you desist from providing any further information as it could well work against us.
Mrs Ball and her children on their bikes in the car park behind the house in 1977
'Please can you send me copies of all of his requests and the information you have sent him to date and let me know how much we have received in fees for your time, postage and photo copying etc, as no doubt he will be looking to recover these costs.'
In another Mr Shepherd said: 'Just to reiterate please can you end all dialogue with David Ball RE signage as this would not be documented in the deeds etc.'
Other emails show staff at the records office passed on information about when Mr Ball had visited. One wrote: 'I can see from the Archives Card record that David Ball visit on May 2, 2025, there is no photo licence for him around this date. I did see that he has also visited on other occasions, do you know roughly when he would have consulted CT5552 and I can check again for a photo licence?'
Mr Shepherd was criticised by the judge in his ruling over the access. Judge Robert Brown said Mr Shepherd was 'surprisingly combative' while his 'evidence consisted of unsubstantiated assertions'.
One of his sarcastic responses was 'totally irrelevant' and 'most unhelpful' the judge added.
A spokesman for Derbyshire County Council said Mr Ball made a number of visits to the Record Office and was provided with the information he requested.
The spokesman added: 'We are sorry that Mr Ball feels he was under surveillance.
'Attendance at the Record Office is recorded as part of standard procedures to ensure the security of records and the appropriate management of access to archive materials.
'These arrangements apply to all visitors and are not specific to Mr Ball.'