Winchester busker Frank Williams has been given another reprieve in his battle to keep his home after the City Council got its knuckles rapped in court.

For two years the authority has been trying to evict the 54-year-old, pictured above, accordion player and move him off land by the River Itchen at St Catherine's Hill where he says he has been living for 12 years.

The issue started after Winchester City Council wrote to Frank two years ago informing him that the land he is on, next to the St Catherine's Hill car park off Garnier Road and which he thought nobody owned, was legally theirs and they wanted him off it.

Frank, who can often be seen busking in Winchester High Street with his three-legged dog, refused to budge until the authority had shown him the original deeds to the land, which would prove it was theirs.

Then in September last year the council finally tracked down the original documents and showed them to Frank but, by that stage, he had decided to stay and fight the eviction.

The battle has now gone to court where a hearing yesterday saw the case adjourned for the second time after it emerged that some of the evidence the council was going to rely on would not be satisfactory.

Yesterday at the county court in Winchester, Judge Nicholas Murphy heard how Frank's two defences against eviction centred on whether he now had a right to the land through living there so long, and whether the council had correctly proved the land to be theirs.

However, as proceedings got under way, Judge Murphy criticised the authority for not satisfactorily proving that the original deeds and accompanying documents showed which land the council still owned and which had been subsequently sold on.

He added: "The problem is that all I have got is the surveyor's statement saying he is satisfied, but with all due respect it is not up to him to be satisfied, it is up to me."

The case was adjourned and the authority given 28 days in which to compile the written evidence of their claim.

Speaking after the adjournment, Frank said: "It suits me fine.

"One of the main parts of my case against the council's eviction is that I've never been satisfied that what they claim is true, and now they will have to produce everything in writing."

The case is not due back in court until the first available date after March 8.