Save our safe haven please.
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm an advocate for a neurodiverse family who face losing their home and homelessness.
Grandad , Z, is 52, autistic, ADHD and has information processing delay, he has to translate words to pictures for it to make sense and lots can be lost in translation. He is also very literal.
Nanny, J, is 50 and her job is to keep everyone safe & cared for. She is very good at this but is losing hope due the devastating situation the family find themselves in.
Daughter, C, is 30 and has 2 little girls, B is nearly 5, ADHD & has just started full time school, she wants to come home to her normality.
H was 2 weeks old when the family were evicted from their own home of 12 years. Her Mum was still recovering from a C-section when the family were unlawfully evicted.
Son, T, is severely autistic, however, thanks to his mum, J, and his alternative upbringing, he has just completed his degree in cyber security with a 2:1.
Their story starts 12 years ago. They had lived in council housing for 17 years but for the last 4 of those, they had the neighbours from hell. Partying until all hours, shouting, banging on walls, you know how these things go. Despite numerous complaints and police involvement, things just got progressively worse.
Around this time, Z bought a piece of land with the intention of having a small holding where the family could escape to for peace & quiet.
They would have chickens, bees and maybe a cow or 2.
Z applied for (with the help of his friend to tackle the paperwork) am agricultural barn on the land. He got permission and began to build. The barn housed the chickens, a JCB, and bits & pieces of stuff that you find on smallholdings everywhere. It was the escape the family needed it to be, they could breathe again, even if it was just for a little while.
A few months went by and the behaviour of the neighbours ramped up, there were direct threats to Z so he put a caravan on the land next to the barn. His literal mind worked out a plan. He would move the family to the barn, away from the abuse, to safety.
He started to build inside the barn and by September 2011 he had moved the family over. They were safe, they could sit outside, play, smile and learn to re-engage again. Live again.
12 years went by, the family were known to the villagers up the road, they were known to the parish council from day 1, the local council on day 2. The cows never materialised but Z reared his own chickens, he started with 70 rescue birds and built up his flock to 350, all raised by hand. T loved nothing better than to decompress in the middle of the chickens or playing with the 4 family dogs. The family were happy & settled, C became a manager at a local pub, T went on to further education & then Uni. Z's bees grew & grew until he had over 70 hives, that's over 4 million bees! He decided to go into producing honey to sell through local outlets and spent the last two years making a sterile processing room and gaining the relevant certification.
On 3/7/23 a fireman came to the gate and asked Z what was in the barn. He replied, "a workshop, storage and living area". The fireman asked for the names & ages of everyone living there which Z duly told him. The fireman then asked if it was ok for a fire safety officer to call the next day to conduct an inspection. Z said yes of course and made arrangements for the officer to call at 1.30pm the next day, 4/7/23.
Then began the start of their nightmare.
The next day, the fire officer turned up accompanied by 4 policemen and 2 council planning enforcement officers. They asked if they could come in, all of them, and obviously feeling intimidated, Z said yes. Within 10 minutes, one of the planning enforcement officers turned to Z and said, "you're evicted, do you have anywhere to go?" Z was in shock and because of his neurodiversity was unable to comprehend much of what happened after that.
The fire officer issued a prohibition notice saying the family couldn't sleep there but were able to carry on with their daily business unimpeded. On the prohibition notice he had written that there weren't enough fire exits in the barn. Z rectified this the very next day, however, the fire officer then said that Z's workshop needed isolating in the event of a fire.
Over the next two weeks, Z complied, phoned the fire officer to lift the prohibition notice but he refused, saying that he now wanted building regs. Z didn't have these as he didn't realise he needed them. So currently, with my funding, he is undergoing building regs.
Whilst all this was occurring, another battle was ongoing. On Z's neighbours advice, he applied for a lawful development certificate, which if issued, would mean the barn was lawful because it's been there over ten years, of which the family have ample proof. The LDC is supposed to be dealt with by the local council within 8 weeks, to date, almost ten weeks later, Z doesn't know what is happening with it because the council planning officer won't respond to emails or calls.
On yet a third side of the battle, the planning enforcement officer who originally evicted the family, reported the family to child social care. He told social care that the family were living in a shed with no running water and no toilet facilities. On 5/7/23, the day after the eviction, social care workers came to visit the family at the barn. They were highly delighted with what they found, a beautiful home, hot and cold running water, showers, a bath, a full kitchen. The family use chemical toilets which are emptied into a bio-digester, this in turn produces methane (used for cooking and heating) and liquid nitrate (used for fertilising the land). Electricity is powered using solar panels and rainwater is harvested from the roofs, filtered and used for showers etc. Shop bought water is used for drinking. All rubbish is recycled & up-cycled.
The social workers wrote in their report that although the family live an alternative lifestyle, they had no safeguarding issues whatsoever, case closed!
The enforcement officer then lied about evicting the family, taking no responsibility at all. I helped them to make an official complaint but with no input from the family at all, the planning enforcement officer's superior found he had done nothing wrong. He has consistently bullied Z, even after having been made aware of his learning disabilities and those of his son T. He tried to make Z withdraw the LDC telling Z he would never get it.
He unlawfully served 2 enforcement notices on Z & J, one of which has no right of appeal, it can only be taken to court for a judicial review. The planning enforcement officer has no interest in Z's learning disabilities, he is making life as hard for the family as he possibly can. He is a bully and a liar who has made a vulnerable family homeless with no regard.
To top it all off, the local council housing officer has found that Z had made himself intentionally homeless, therefore they can withdraw any and all support they are giving.
So here we are. I have given all my savings, £6000, to pay a planning solicitor to take on their case. We have served Melton Borough Council with judicial review papers and are taking them to court. The end of the road is nowhere in sight just yet though. It could take months for any resolution and we have no more money for the solicitors who have already waived some of their fee.
I'd like to ask, if you could possibly spare anything at all to help this neurodiverse family return to their safe haven, to live their alternative lifestyle and just to be happy, please donate to our fundraiser. We would be grateful beyond words. Many thanks, Sarah & the A family xxxx
Organizer
Sarah Radford
Organizer
England