Rest stop stays open, judges rule

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MINEHEAD, England, July 19 (UPI) -- A couple in England, claiming that a highway rest area turned their adjacent garden into a public urinal and a dumping ground, lost their case in court.

John and Cherry Pusey of Minehead, Somerset, installed a camera on their property and recorded over 500 people, between 2005 and 2010, using the rest area, referred to in Britain as a "lay-by", as a bathroom, and told judges the stop on Route B3224 had become a focus for petty theft, vandalism, fly-tipping (the British term for littering) and anti-social behavior, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

The Puseys claimed the activities interfered with their "reasonable enjoyment" of their home and garden. But in refusing to order the Somerset County Council to close the rest stop, the three presiding Appeal Court judges ruled that motorists' misbehavior, however annoying, did not amount to a "nuisance" in the eyes of the law.

Lord Justice Patten, one of the judges, added that "This is to some extent an indication of the obsession which they (the Puseys) have developed with the use of the lay-by," noting the couple had been complaining about the situation since 1993, and that other local residents preferred to keep the rest area open to motorists.