A HOMELESS father took his protest to the rooftop when bailiffs arrived to evict his family - which includes a 10-month-old baby.

Eddie Blackmore and his wife Sue, with their three children, had to leave Gullivers Farm in West Moors where they had been squatting since December.

The couple made a banner announcing a peaceful protest and demanding a public inquiry into their case .

Mr Blackmore, 29, shinned up on to the roof and refused to go while his wife left with the children, carrying a half-eaten birthday cake for daughter Georgie, whose fifth birthday it was.

Mrs Blackmore, 22, said her troubles had started when she was evicted from a house in Wimborne while away on a long holiday.

She had been in bed and breakfast accommodation and the family had failed to get proper housing, though they had applied both in East Dorset and the New Forest.

"We have maintained this property. It looks 100 per cent better now," she said.

"We have offered to pay rent but they won't take it off us. They are going to board it up.

"They have thrown us out of this house and we want an inquiry into the way we have been treated. This is a peaceful protest."

The family were offered temporary bed and breakfast accommodation in Boscombe after Mr Blackmore came down from the roof.

Dorset County Council's head of property management, Mike Harries, said the county council had bought the site for the West Moors relief road.

"Mr Blackmore moved into the house, without consent," he said.

"We learned his partner was expecting a child, and so decided to delay taking possession until after the baby was born to avoid causing distress."

The house would now be sold as it was no longer needed for the relief road, he said.

"Because we are not a housing authority, we could not lease the property to Mr Blackmore," he added.

GP's son Mr Blackmore made the headlines in 1999 when he camped in his car outside East Dorset Housing Association in Ferndown to protest his homelessness then.

First published: Sept 25