Bus dwellers must move

Bruce Scott (36), his partner Michelle Halligan and their friends Christie Flynn and his partner Ines Bolumburu, who have a two year old daughter Lorea, all work and aim to continue doing so while restoring the neglected woodland that is their home.

But moves are now under way by Wealden Council to remove them from Quicken Wood off the B2192 road at Blackboys. At a meeting on Thursday councillors agreed enforcement action should be taken to stop the residential use of the land and remove all signs of human habitation.

Mr Scott said this week that the whole matter was now out of their hands. 'This is our dream, we have spent all our money on everything we have here and ultimately I don't think it is the council's job to make people homeless.

'We are hopeful we will be able to stay but we have to sit down and see. It is out of our control and we have to wait while the powers that be make the decision for us,' said Mr Scott.

Two people living opposite the wood had written to the council in support of the families and Mr Scott said they got on all right with another neighbour. The only person they had problems with was a local who walked his dog through the wood ... yet he was walking on their private property.

'There is no right of way across this land. We choose to allow people to walk over it,' said Mr Scott. They lived out of sight down a slope at the back of the wood in their buses, one of which was painted in camouflage colours while the other was green with a camouflage net over it.

They collected rain water and heated it with power generated by two wind turbines and banks of solar panels. Each bus had a shower and the families were able to watch television and listen to stereos like anybody else. They collected drinking water from a nearby garage.

They have put up a shed to house goats and plan to do their own organic gardening.

In the meantime they want to restore the woodland under a forestry management scheme run by Defra and the Forestry Commission. Pine trees planted as a nursery crop had been allowed to get out of control and were now killing off the broad leaf trees they surrounded.

Mr Scott said the families aimed to slowly remove the pine trees and replant oak, ash, hazel and beech. They had been selling Christmas trees and had raised enough money that way to buy 300 saplings. They also wanted to plant an orchard.

Mr Scott said he started living in a bus when he found himself spending most of his income as a nurse on rent for a bungalow. The buses appealed because they were low impact housing. They had no foundations and because they were made of aluminium, as long as they were painted and well maintained, they did not rot.

The couples had no interest in building more conventional homes, in fact they would be happy to enter into a contract with the council guaranteeing that they would not have any brick built structures or have more residential accommodation on the site.