A FARMING couple with dreams of running a family business may be left homeless after a "blot on landscape" dispute with council officers intent on protecting the New Forest.

Anne and Victor Marsh, of Heathlands Farm in Ower, are waiting for a government inspector to settle the row with New Forest District Council after investing thousands of pounds to convert a barn for an intensive rabbit rearing and egg-processing business.

If they lose their appeal against the council decision to refuse planning permission for both the conversion and their on-site residential mobile home, the pair - who have been married for more than 30 years - may be left without a roof over their heads.

The couple, who already have 500 does and nearly 200 chickens at the Salisbury Road site, moved into the home to begin running the intensive farming business in the barn, the open sides of which they have now filled in.

But the council's development control officers have decided that the barn alterations have created a "dominant and intrusive" building and the mobile home adds "to the human pressure on the New Forest which is detrimental to its long-term conservation".

An enforcement notice was served ordering the removal of the "dwelling".

Mother-of-three Anne, 51, feels the council should be backing the venture, into which they have already invested £35,000.

She said: "The idea for intensive rabbit rearing came about five years ago but really we have had plans for the site for the last 16 years.

"It's taken us this long to get everything right.

"People should be encouraged into small-scale farming at the moment as they are more likely to succeed."

However, Pat Aird, policy officer for the council's enforcement team, was concerned about the consequences for the New Forest Heritage Area should the business fail.

She said: "These are alterations that will be there for perpetuity and we will be left with a building that's unattractive and oversized - basically, a blot on the landscape."

Representing the couple Roger Prescott said: "This amount of money would not have been spent if it had been just a speculative venture."

The inspector is expected to make a decision in two to three weeks.

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