OAP battles to save wood cabin home (From Bournemouth Echo)

OAP battles to save wood cabin home

8:00am Monday 9th November 2009 in

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A GRANDMOTHER of four is fighting to keep her home in the countryside.

Pensioner Helen Lacy will appear before a planning inspector at a local inquiry tomorrow.

She has lodged an appeal to keep her wood cabin, a tree house, a small timber garden shed and greenhouse structure on Dullar Lane in Sturminster Marshall.

She lives just inside the catchment for Purbeck District Council and having gained permission for a mobile home in the past to live in for up to eight months of the year, replaced the structure with the transportable cabin. The district council is seeking to enforce its decision that it breaks the rules and must be removed.

The planning inspector will rule on what happens next.

Mrs Lacy told the Daily Echo the saga had been going on for nearly two years and has been very stressful.

She has gained the support of her MP, Annette Brooke, her neighbours and even her postman, who have written letters.

She has been forced to spend thousands of pounds to hire a barrister and planning consultant to help her.

“I have lived here for nearly 40 years,” she said. “It has been here for four years.

“None of my neighbours have objected. I have 20 letters of support.”

The cabin is on the site of a former detached cottage, which was badly damaged by fire in 1964.

When the cottage fell down, Mrs Lacy installed a mobile home on the site and replaced that in 2005 with a log cabin made by a Dorset craftsman.

She says she felt it would be more environmentally friendly, be less prone to extreme fluctuations of temperature and blend into the scenery.

Mrs Lacy said she didn’t want to think about what would happen if she lost the case, as the cabin is her home.

Purbeck District Council has said the structure is substantial, breaches planning rules and the buildings are without permission in the green belt.