A YOUNG family fear they will be thrown out of their home - with their 30 sheep, 15 pigs, four goats, 20 geese, 10 ducks, 25 stud dogs, assorted chickens and turkeys - because they are not farmers.

Jane White's father - a smallholder - built the house at White Rose Farm at Holt near Wimborne in the 1980s.

Her mother - who died last year - bred Cavalier King Charles spaniels for 15 years at the site.

The couple swapped houses with Jane, 29, and her partner Darren Cutler two years ago.

Ms White wants to build up the smallholding and to carry on the dog-breeding.

But East Dorset District Council says she is in breach of a condition of planning permission - namely that the home is for someone whose main income is from agriculture.

Ms White said the money she earned from agriculture and dog-breeding had to be supplemented by income from her partner's business for the family to survive.

All the neighbouring farms had diversified into riding or renting office space, she said.

"We want to be self-sufficient," she said. "We grow all our own vegetables, chicken, eggs. We do our own lamb and supply friends and family."

She hopes to pass the smallholding on to her son Connor, now nine.

"He loves helping his granddad - he's very keen," Ms White said.

"We are genuinely trying to run a smallholding here. I want to work it - I have always just bred my dogs and worked on the farm, that's all I know."

The property would be going on the market to establish whether anyone would buy it as a going agricultural concern, she added.

East Dorset planning chief Mike Hirsh said it was a complicated issue but eviction was still "a long, long way off".

"We have explained to them some long time ago that they should have put it on the market if they were seeking to relax the (agricultural) condition," he said.

"We have no problem with diversification as long as there is a viable farm to diversify," he added.

Mr Hirsh emphasised that if the process got to the point where seeking an injunction to evict was being considered, the matter would be discussed with council members.

A government inspector will decide the issue at an informal planning inquiry later this month.

First published: August 11, 2005