District planners have recommended that a caravan on the Linney be allowed to remain for at least five years, despite objections from neighbours and Ludlow Civic Society.

Mrs Eliza Smith has been at the site since 1988.

She originally lived in a small touring caravan, which she bought from a relative, when she first applied for permission to site it. This was granted, temporarily for five years.

Mrs Smith bought the land sometime after 1993, the year she was granted 'temporary' planning permission for the second time. Now there are two large "mobile-home" type caravans.

There are also outbuildings, a garden, a driveway and ornate gate, all protected by two large lion statues.

One resident wrote to the council protesting that Mrs Smith had "out-stayed the permission given for a touring type caravan", adding that the driveway, an established hedge, gates and a mobile home were "hardly a temporary set-up".

"Approached by a drive fringed with ornamental stone lions and eagles, through ornamental iron gates and enclosed by a tall fence and impenetrable hedge some 5ms high, the applicant's site is remote indeed from any normal concept of a gipsy caravan site," said Ludlow Civic Society chairman James McFarlane.

Despite the objections the planning officer's report recommends that Mrs Smith be granted another five years, dependent on her and her immediate family remaining the occupiers.

The time would allow her to look for satisfactory residential accommodation, says the report.

Planning officer Rob Mills said: "We recommended temporary permission because Mrs Smith's circumstances haven't changed since she was last granted permission and because of the history of site's use."

As the Advertiser went to press, South Shropshire district councillors were deciding on the application.