A widow who spent two years transforming a fly-tipped patch of wasteland in Sidlesham, West Sussex into a smallholding used by local schoolchildren has been ordered to dismantle it after losing a planning appeal. Tara Dexter, 57, bought the £57,000 plot while grieving the sudden death of her partner Gary from brain cancer, turning it into a haven for pigs, chickens, peacocks and wildlife, and says the project helped her cope with her loss. Chichester District Council objected to a container and sheds on the site, ruling they breached countryside planning rules, and rejected her retrospective planning application.

Ms Dexter's subsequent appeal to the Planning Inspectorate has failed, leaving her with four months to remove the structures from her land. She notes the irony that the council had previously raised no objection to the container and sheds and even awarded her almost £3,000 in grants to plant hedgerows and trees, while surrounding plots including a burnt-out barn and long-standing fly-tipping have gone unaddressed. Local schoolchildren and disabled visitors have used the site, including a willow igloo she built, and she says she is devastated at the prospect of the land reverting to a dumping ground.