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Joy Jarvis has been hit with a £90,000 court bill
Paul KeoghTuesday 02 December 2025 09:14 GMTComments
open image in galleryBrian Jarvis (left) and Joy Jarvis (right) outside Central London County Court (Champion News)
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The owner of an award-winning wellness retreat has been ordered to pay a £90,000 court bill after using her Bentley to “blockade” a GP's car park during a bitter neighbour dispute.
Joy Jarvis, who runs the Glasshouse Retreat, became embroiled in a legal battle with Dr Reshma Rasheed of Chapel Street Surgery in Billericay, Essex, over access rights to a narrow driveway.
The drive provides access to both Mrs Jarvis's land and the surgery's car park, which is used by staff and patients.
The shared access point became a flashpoint in a long-running feud, with lawyers saying that Dr Rasheed and her neighbours have been “headbutting each other for years”.
Mrs Jarvis and her husband Brian acquired the land behind the surgery in 2021 for development, and disputes then escalated over Dr Rasheed's right to use the drive.
Mrs Jarvis was accused of deploying her Bentley to “blockade” the car park, effectively “landlocking” it and rendering it unusable.
Mr and Mrs Jarvis claimed that Dr Rasheed only has the right to use the front portion of the lane and that the only reason that she cannot access her car park is because she extended her surgery too far to the rear, effectively blocking her own right of way.
open image in galleryThe shared access point has become a flashpoint in a long-running feud (Champion News)But after a trial at Central London County Court, Judge Alan Johns rejected Mr and Mrs Jarvis' case and handed them a £90,000 bill for the dispute so far.
The judge noted that Mrs Jarvis “regretted” the Bentley parking incident, but found that a 1973 conveyance and the fact it has been used by the surgery for over 50 years proved Dr Rasheed has a right of way over the whole driveway.
During the trial earlier this year, the court heard Mrs Jarvis, 74, and her 71-year-old husband are veteran property builders, with Mrs Jarvis telling the judge she has been involved in property development for 40 years.
They are also owners of the Glasshouse Retreat, a wellness spa where visitors are invited to “absorb yourself with holistic wellness...Feel your body and mind reset, de-stress and relax...Take the time to focus on what matters while enjoying the retreat’s state-of-the-art-facilities, Zen treatment rooms and nutritious food.”
The retreat, which features a natural swimming pond, outdoor “wellness dome” and 21 rooms in the Essex countryside, has won two Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards, as well as other awards in the spa industry.
Dr Rasheed, 62, purchased the small family surgery in Chapel Street, Billericay, Essex, in 2006, having earlier been made a GP partner there.
The warring parties first clashed after Mr and Mrs Jarvis bought a former builders' yard behind Dr Rasheed's neighbours' house in 2021.
The yard, which the couple plan to develop into housing, is accessed from the main road via the driveway, which Dr Rasheed and predecessors have long used as an access to the car park behind the surgery.
open image in galleryDr Reshma Rasheed outside Central London County Court (Champion News)Her barrister, Rupert Myers, told the judge that she has a right of way over the drive to get to the back of the surgery under a 1973 conveyance and that it had been used for decades before Mr and Mrs Jarvis bought the land next door.
“Almost immediately upon acquiring the property, the defendants took issue with the claimant’s use of the driveway to reach her car park,” he said.
“Shortly after their purchase, the defendants and in particular the second defendant Mrs Jarvis asserted that the claimant had no right to use the full length of the driveway to access the car park.
“On 24 August 2021, the second defendant parked her Bentley on the driveway in such a manner as to block the claimant and her patients from driving into or out of the surgery’s car park.
“This deliberate obstruction of the right of way caused significant disruption to the surgery’s operations.
“The second defendant’s blockade of the driveway entirely prevented the claimant and her patients from exercising the right of way to the surgery.
“That interference was deliberate, it was done on the very day the defendants’ counsel had warned of clearing and fencing off the land, indicating a calculated attempt to deny access.”
He said the couple had only “ceased obstruction when faced with legal action” and have “explicitly stated their intention to fence off” the part of the drive they say Dr Rasheed has no rights over.
“If carried out, such fencing would physically bar the claimant and her invitees from reaching the car park by car, effectively landlocking a crucial part of the surgery’s premises,” he said.
“This is not a trivial or technical infringement.”
open image in galleryDr Reshma Rasheed's Chapel Street Surgery in Billericay. The disputed driveway is immediately to the right of the building (Supplied by Champion News)Dr Rasheed sued for a judicial declaration that her right of way over the driveway extends for around 30 metres from the main road, ending at the gates to the old builders' yard, allowing her and her patients and staff to reach the car park.
However, Mr and Mrs Jarvis claimed her right of way over the driveway extends only for around 26m, which would not allow cars to reach the car park.
Their barrister, Kevin Leigh, told the judge the dispute had been fraught, adding: “These parties have been embroiled in headbutting one another for a number of years.”
He said expert evidence showed that the GP's rights extend to only around 26m worth of the driveway, which had been enough for drivers to get to the car park prior to the surgery's rear extension being built in 2018.
Before the extension work, visitors had been able to drive down the lane and turn left into the car park without going past that 26m mark and all the way to the end of the lane, he said.
Returning to court to give his ruling, Judge Johns found in favour of Dr Rasheed, while noting that Mrs Jarvis “regretted” her actions in blocking the car park with her Bentley.
“In my judgment, on the true construction of the 1973 conveyance, the right of way extends the full length of the driveway, not merely the first 26 metres,” he said.
He said it was also important that there is no other feature on the ground, other than the yard gates, to mark out the extent of the right of way.
Even if that was wrong, then the use of the driveway as an access to the car park for more than 50 years would give Dr Rasheed a right to continue using it, he said.
“The driveway was in fact used for the whole, or almost its whole, length and no limit to the right of way was ever marked on the ground,” he continued.
“The use established a right of way by long user. The user has been since at least, or soon after, the 1973 conveyance, probably before.
“I am entirely satisfied the historic user was sufficient to establish a right of way. This was and is a busy surgery and the driveway is the only means of getting to its patient car park.”
Describing Mr and Mrs Jarvis as the “losers overall”, the judge ordered them to pay Dr Rasheed's lawyers' bills for the case so far, with £90,000, including VAT, up front.
The judge rejected Mr and Mrs Jarvis' claim for an injunction requiring her to remove drains and cables from under the driveway, saying there was “no proper foundation” for an order.
Further allegations of trespass by Mr and Mrs Jarvis against Dr Rasheed remain unresolved and will return to court at a later date, if not settled.
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