Live and let live: couple's plea to their neighbours

But Jason and Zoe Ingram say life has progressively become a nightmare as they have been forced to endure a campaign of harassment from certain other householders around them.

Jason, 36, currently unemployed after previously working as a recovery driver, said: "We're near the end of our tether, yet we just want to be left alone to get on with our lives."

He and Zoe, who have four children aged 10, nine, five and seven months, have even resorted to putting a notice on their front lawn asking tormentors to call it a day.

They claim that complaints had been made to police about Jason's recovery truck being parked outside the house, even though it was there quite legally.

His former employers provided a smaller vehicle that would fit onto the drive, but even this drew criticism, and Jason said: "I gave up a job I loved doing and am good at just to try to keep the peace."

But then came complaints about noisy children and loud music, plus allegations of motor trading because Jason had a notice in his 4x4 which he was trying to sell.

Some neighbours also objected to him sometimes having a racing car on the drive when it's a hobby he enjoys with his son Spencer, and now the Ingrams have been told that a caravan that's there must go.

"It's as if certain people don't like the fact that we're tenants, while they have mortgages, and whatever we've tried to do to fit in simply hasn't been good enough."

The couple are originally from Surrey, but thought Bexhill would be a better place in which to raise their children.

Zoe said: "We now need to stay local for the kids' sake, but we'd desperately like to move from this house or at least just be left in peace."

The couple say they suspect one neighbour may be filming them from an upstairs window whenever they go out, yet in contrast their next-door neighbour is "as good as gold".

Jason said: "If we were playing loud music late at night you think he'd be banging on the wall and complaining, but that's never happened."

Nonetheless, on June 10 a letter was sent out from Rother District Council's environmental health department advising the Ingrams that they had been reported for a statutory nuisance of loud music.

Jason has attached the letter to a sign on his lawn that reads: "Look, I think it's about time you left me and my family alone. I know the person that as (sic) reported this, So watch your back. Mr and Mrs Ingram. We don't play music."

The Ingrams hope that by highlighting their situation, they may at last get some peace. Jason said: "We simply want to live and let live. Surely that's not too much to ask?"