PLACARD-waving friends and neighbours of an elderly Southampton woman held a demonstration outside her landlord's home yesterday after she was evicted without her possessions.

A small group of protesters joined 76-year-old Flo Giblett to distribute leaflets and demonstrate after she was forced out of her rented home by police and bailiffs when magistrates issued an eviction notice on her.

Frail Flo, who suffers from a blood disease and osteoporosis, has been unable to access her belongings and medication after her landlord changed the locks on the property.

The grandmother had been renting the house in Park Road, Shirley, Southampton, for three years while she claims that major council renovation work carried out on her own three-storey home next door had made it unsafe.

Yesterday she presented her landlord with a seven-page petition in protest at her treatment.

But landlord Kulvinder Kang says he has been made to look like the bad guy when he has just been following the decision of the council and the magistrates.

Mr Kang, of Hadrian Way, Chilworth, said: "I've followed the correct processes and the magistrates have decided to evict her. I've incurred aggravation and legal fees because I agreed to take her in when the council asked me to and I'm made to look like the bad guy.

"I served her with a legal notice asking for possession of the property because the council asked me to carry out work on it. She claims the notice was not legal.

"Because she did not move from the property I took out eviction proceedings. She has been aware of the proceedings for six months.

"I'm prepared to let her have two weeks to move her belongings but she cannot move back in."

Flo, who was up to date with her rent, had been renting Mr Kang's property next door to her own while the council carried out £60,000 of repairs to it.

But Flo was unhappy with the work and refused to move back in when it was complete.

She said: "It's an absolute shambles inside. It's dangerous in several respects. I have a doctor's note that says I could die from exposure if I do not have access to my medication."