A BUSKER will be spared a homeless Christmas again this year after Winchester City Council bosses backed down on plans to evict him before the new year.

Frank Williams has lived in his dome tent by the Itchen Navigation next to St Catherine's Hill for the past decade.

The 53-year-old erected the structure on land he thought nobody owned. However, two years ago Winchester City Council wrote to him warning that he was on their land.

Then shortly before Christmas last year the authority again wrote to Frank saying that they were clamping down on all unauthorised dwellings in the district and that they wanted him off their land, sparking fears they would evict him just before the holiday season.

Frank though, who can often be seen playing his accordion with his three-legged dog by the city's Buttercross, refused to budge until the council showed him the original 1930s deeds to the land proving the site belonged to the city council.

Those deeds were eventually unearthed in September, but despite earlier promises he would go if the deeds were shown to him, Frank has since decided to stay and fight for his Garnier Road home.

Winchester City Council has now set a county court date of Tuesday for repossession proceedings as the first step towards getting Frank evicted from the land.

Yesterday a council spokeswoman admitted it was unlikely Frank would be evicted before the new year.

She said: "We have a court date set to regain possession of the land.

"However, any eviction order we get from the court will have to be put before members for ratification and it is unlikely we would evict him before the new year.

"We appreciate he has been there for a fair length of time and we would also want to give him time to put his affairs in order and consider his future housing needs before asking him to leave."

Frank, who came to Winchester as part of the protest action over the construction of the M3 through Twyford Down in the early 1990s, said he was pleased at the news but hopeful he could still win a legal battle over his home.

He said: "I'm preparing a defence.

"I think there's a lot of anomalies in the paperwork that the council have shown me, and to be honest I'm not quite sure what their argument is or whether the facts, as they see it, are correct.

"I believe I've got a very good chance of getting the case thrown out of court, and I'm determined to fight to keep my home."