Off grid couple facing prison. UK

Thanks for all the positive messages guys! We have had to stop all habitation of the land but this was still not enough for the council who are taking us to court on 23/12/11. They are applying for an order to send me to prison....how nice eh? Never fear the battle may be lost but the war still rages!

http://youtu.be/oukwJ7Q_MWE

This an article about them from earlier this year.
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Injunction-end-month/story-12812676-detail/story.html

(Have I put this in the right forum? Feel free to move it if need be)

Seems like a horribly confusing situation - weren't they told at the beginning they weren't allowed to live on the land?

I really don't know much about it. I just feel some loyalty to the lady because she used to live in the same town I used to live in for many years. I'm not sure if I knew her but we have a few of the same friends.
I understand that they may have broken laws but I am saddened that people that are trying to live closer to nature are outlawed.

I feel for them - the laws about living on your own land are stupidly strict in the UK. Those laws were what finally drove me out to find my little patch of Portugal. If anyone knows how to get in touch, tell them to come over here - you can buy somewhere really nice for the money you'd get selling a couple of acres over there.

Yes, Portugal would be nice. I'm in Ibiza, Spain. Nice here too but the land is expensive.

The lady is friends with friends of mine on Facebook so I'll send her a link to this thread.

Damned ridiculous. And what lovely timing to appear in court just before Christmas Eve - Season's Greetings to the Council!!!

It's the reason we live in France. Warren, if you have a FB link then they're welcome to come here, stay with us and see if they can make a go of it.

British land laws date back to the days of serfdom. Perhaps that is a big part of why they import the vast majority of their foodstuffs today.

It sucks that the family's happiness is not being considered, just the fact that they don't meet the economic requirements as defined by the government or council. Anyway, by working on their land and growing their own veg, surely the money the save from reducing purchases combined with money they make from selling produce is equivalent to the wage earned by one individual on minimum wage (and having to buy their own food)?

I hate how bureaucratic the UK is. It might be alright if councils could be or wanted to be more flexible and had people's interests at heart too.

John Polk wrote:British land laws date back to the days of serfdom. Perhaps that is a big part of why they import the vast majority of their foodstuffs today.

It isn't land law that is the problem but planning law which is a post WWII invention and much of it is designed to control excessive development in the countryside in order to stop all the agricultural land being taken up with housing.

Does anyone know the outcome?

This is exactly the reason why we want to move away from Cornwall and go to Portugal.
I have signed the petition on the site and offered any help I can give to them.

Aman

Alison Freeth-Thomas wrote:Does anyone know the outcome?

Dinah's last post on her Facebook wall was on the 24th of December. I'll ask a couple of her friends what the latest news is.

Thanks Warren

Give her our love

aman

One of her friends has got back to me.

i know the judge put her hearing off until february. thats about all i know right now

Is there an address where I can send my support?
Thanks
Kate

It just doesn't make sense to kick people out of their home to leave the home empty to rot while the people have to go to a shelter where they rely on hand outs or government. Here in the U.S. Millions of empty homes foreclosed on and the people living in parks while the homes are just empty, entire subdivisions have only one home lived in. Obviously here we can blame the false lending market that helped the economy crash 2007.