I had a horrible day on Friday

That sounds all the more to me like have a police person round to check out the security of your house. If your force won't make a Crime Prevention Officer available these days - ie of budget cuts and police more likely to be used to visit people to harass them for using our British right to "freedom of speech" = maybe it would be worth checking out local locksmiths to see what they have to say about your security generally.

Perhaps you could ask on a local community Facebook group to see if anyone can recommend a good honest locksmith (ie with integrity enough to do a good security check-up - without trying to act "sales person" for anything they personally wish to sell to people). You'd probably have to pay for their security verdict on your house - but I can't imagine it would be that much...

When I replaced upvc front door with a composite door I had a knocker put on the door as an "extra". Just been to have a look at it and, if it was at eye level and I wanted a peephole = I reckon it shouldnt be a problem to put a peephole on one side of it...rather than in line with it. I had a peephole way back in a flat I rented - but it was 40 years ago and I "think" it showed enough of a span that it would have taken in someone standing to the side of the peephole so to say.

CariadAgain, can't do that. There are narrow windows too close to the knocker. I have found a local locksmith and emailed him (or her!), describing the door and knocker to see if and roughly how much it would cost to have the knocker replaced with one I have seen on the internet, same shape but with an integrated spy hole. That way, any damage caused by the removal should be covered.

Ok., I got back to the HA. Their system had failed to save my phone number and they had the file standing by in the hope I would ring them.

They have reassured me that the son will NOT be able to become a joint tenant or inherit the tenancy. He has not live there long enough (7 weeks rather than the stipulated 2 years).
She has been visited and they have "had a long discussion". Hopefully she was sober and will remember at least some of it. They have confirmed he is not at the property and have strongly advised her not to let him return. They will also try and help her arrange for her care needs, rather than depending on family members.

So long as she manages to keep her own predeliction to spasmodic nastiness under control and does not incite her other son to have a go at me (as happened with her now deceased neighbour), I do not have a problem, although it might be difficult convincing my daughters of that.

Aely
Razor wire on top of the chicken wire and your wooden fence 😂
Or you could electrify the wire fence.

DD who got her car damaged turned up yesterday with a Ring doorbell. It is in her name and she is paying the necessaries. It is linked to her phone (40 miles from me) and I can access the video as a guest viewer on my laptop, but it takes a while to come through, so limited in its use. Definitely an "after the event" device. To view, I must dig out my ancient Nokia 1200 and wait the minute or so it takes to find a signal to get a security code. The actual doorbell rings like a normal one for me and it has a motion sensor which gives a muted steam train whistle if someone approaches the front door. The only place for the receiver is in my kitchen where there is a free power point.

It is more for my daughter's peace of mind than mine. I wonder what she made of a motion-sensor initiated video of me sitting in my porch with a cuppa at 3.30a.m.? I wake up several times during the night and sometimes get bored waiting to go back to sleep.

One problem, we tested it out of course, but even I was unrecognisable to me in the video it produced. So distorted. Maybe it will be better in daylight. It took so long to install and set up it was dark before we finished two and a half hours later.

At the moment it is just stuck to the front door with strong sticky pads. There is nowhere to fix it on the outer porch wall or house wall.

So far, I have had no luck finding someone to install a peep hole.

Maybe a request for a suitable person on the local Facebook group - or, if it's a small town, then that could be on one or all of the local FB groups.

Perhaps get a friend to do this for you under their name if you think the neighbour would spot it and realise?

That new door knocker with peephole in it sounds like a distinct possibility to me...

Just checked and Amazon instantly came up with one of the door knockers with a peephole in it that I'd seen - £12.99. There's probably others up there if one checks further.

Yes, there are "peephole knockers" (sounds a bit kinky, that ) which are identical to my current doorknocker but, of course, with the peephole. I just need to check sizes and that one of the door's internal locking bars doesn't go right where I need it not to.

I had a chat with DD via the Ring as I was going out the door to do some shopping this afternoon. She said the view was fine in the daylight, so that is ok. She will have to keep an eye on the battery level as some days I am constantly in and out when doing the garden and it will trigger the recording action. My front garden is bigger than the back so most of my flowerbeds are there. I don't have the gubbins to recharge the battery, or know how to yet. There probably isn't enough light in the North facing porch to use a solar charger, especially in the winter.