Neighbours' fury after family attach 26ft mobile caravan to the side of their home for a cheap extension

A family who created a makeshift annexe by putting a 26ft mobile home on the side of their house have been ordered to move it by planners.

Grandmother Audrey Sells, 69, came  up with the cut-price idea after deciding  she needed to be closer to her married daughter, Tina Sanders, who helps to care for her.

Instead of moving into the three-bedroom semi where Mrs Sanders lives with her  family, or building an extension, they paid £4,000 for the static caravan which now fills up the entire yard.

The mobile home – which did not have planning permission – was installed last month.

It has double glazing, mains  electricity and drainage, but there is no direct access to the house.

Neighbours in Deal, Kent, are furious and say it makes their street look like a  travellers’ site.

Planning officers at Dover District Council have now ruled that the ‘dominant and incongruous’ caravan adversely affects the character of the area and has to go.

Mrs Sanders, 48, who lives with her husband  and two children, says her mother will now have to move into her £140,000 house  with them.

She said: ‘They told us it doesn’t fit in  with the environment. My mum is going  to have to sell it and we will have her  stay with us. We’ve been having a difficult time. We all need to be together.

‘I didn’t realise it was going to  cause so much upset, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.‘We’ve tried to do everything properly.  We feel like we are being persecuted for  trying to help my mum out.’

The mobile home comes complete with mains electricity and sewage drains

Neighbours had posted angry comments about the caravan on the council’s website.

Anita Hubbard wrote: ‘I appreciate that the applicant cannot afford an extension. However, that does not mean that they  can simply erect a substantial home in  their garden.

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‘The static caravan is the type found in a holiday park or travellers’ community and doesn’t belong in a residential area.’

Fellow resident Karen Austin Ackland added: ‘It makes the whole street feel like we are living on a gipsy site.’

Another neighbour, Jonathan Goodsell, has been a vocal critic of the extension, demanding its immediate removal.

He posted on the council’s website that the caravan has had ‘a profound effect on the neighbourhood,’ lowering the tone of the area and reducing house values.

Instead of moving into Tina's three-bedroom semi they paid £4,000 for the static caravan

Mrs Sells suffers from severe eczema and amnesia which she says leave her in need of constant care.

Her daughter refused to let her move into emergency accommodation.

Mrs Sanders said that as well as paying £4,000 for the caravan, they spent a  further £3,000 having the double glazing installed.

The family said that the total cost was still much less than the £28,000 they were quoted for an extension.

Members of the council’s planning executive voted to remove the caravan during a meeting on June 6.

It is not the first case of its kind. In January property developer Alan Beesley, 41, was told  to tear down his £500,000 home after disguising it as a barn on protected Green Belt land near Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.