GAZETTE & HERALD: A ROMANY family, the Skeet-Smiths, will continue their battle to live on a field at Pudding Brook at a planning inquiry.

North Wiltshire District Council has issued an enforcement notice on the family, who live off the Bath Road on the edge of Chippenham, after their planning application to use the land as a gypsy caravan site was rejected.

Now a Government planning inspector will deal with the appeal at an inquiry, which is due to take place early next year.

The family's spokesman, Romany Maggie Smith, said she could not predict how the appeal would go but vowed to fight on to the European Court of Human Rights if she had to.

"The whole country lacks Romany sites and lacks funding from the Government," she said.

"Someone has to make a stand and get something done for them after all, we are English."

She said the Skeet-Smith family were suffering because of the uncertainty about their situation wondering if they would be made homeless.

"They suffer from stress and depression. It's especially hard for the older couple on the site because they both have bad health, and there is a child needing schooling," she said.

The district council issued the notice because it decided there was no over-riding national or local need to justify such a development outside a built-up area, with access directly on to a main road.

But the Skeet-Smiths have appealed, saying planning permission should have been given for the development and they did not have enough time to comply with the notice.

Jesse and Lena Smith, their daughter Jean Skeet and her family, moved on to the land at Pudding Brook last year, after Mr Smith bought it at auction. The land had permission for agricultural use only.

North Wiltshire District Council's development control committee members voted to issue the family with a notice to quit on March 10 but the family have appealed against the notice.

District council planners fear the access to and from the site on the Bath Road represents a hazard but the family hopes to prove at its appeal that this problem can be overcome.

Anyone who would like to comment should send their views before September 6 to Kate Vicker, The Planning Inspectorate, Room 3/05 Kite Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Bristol BS1 6PN quoting reference number APP/J3910/c/04/1145222 and 1145548.