Family told to quit their farm

A Shropshire couple have been told they must move off their eco-friendly farm within a year after losing an appeal to keep the caravan they live in sited there.

Janta and Merav Wheelhouse have lived in a caravan on Karuna, their 18-acre site at Picklescott, near Shrewsbury, since moving out of their Bayston Hill home in 2005.

But independent planning inspector Claire Sherratt turned down the appeal when she made her decision today and ordered the couple to move out.

The appeal, which was heard in November, was over the siting of a metal storage container, a polytunnel, and the caravans Mr and Mrs Wheelhouse have been living in with their two sons.

During the four-day hearing they claimed they had to be on site to maintain the land and trees they have planted.

Mrs Sherratt said she did not doubt the Wheelhouses' endeavours, and their efforts to "live a more frugal existence than most to work towards a self sufficient way of living", but added: "I find little support for any functional need to live on site. The appellants moved on to the site without the benefit of planning permission and left a rented property.

"The harm arising is in my view significant. The AONB is a nationally designated area afforded the highest protection."

Mrs and Mrs Wheelhouse have been given 16 weeks to remove the container, 12 months to find a new home and move off the site, and have been denied permission to put up the polytunnel.

Mrs Wheelhouse said that as she had not yet seen the decision notice she did not want to comment.