RESIDENTS at the Silent Woman Park near Bere Regis fear they will be trapped in unsaleable properties if councillors approve proposals that would require a six-metre safety gap between their park homes.

Residents thought a solution had been found when, on the advice of Dorset Fire and Rescue service, Purbeck District councillors agreed they could keep porches and extensions which breach the gap as long as they install fireproofing.

But next week councillors will decide whether a six-metre gap is to be made a requirement when home-owners come to sell their properties - an idea proposed by the park's owner Ian Stainer.

Fourteen residents have signed a petition calling for councillors to stick with the advice of Dorset Fire and Rescue experts who stated that fireproofing would be sufficient to comply with health and safety regulations.

Park resident Sonia McColl said: "People living here do not have the thousands of pounds it would cost to remove extensions. Some would cost tens of thousands because the extensions are integral parts of their homes with heating and everything."

She added: "Our home has been valued at £150,000, but if this proposal goes through we would become prisoners in our own home, unable to sell it on the open market."

Councillors are due to make their decision on Tuesday, August 23 but MP Annette Brooke is raising questions about how the proposal has come about.

She said: "I thought we had found a solution and now it appears there is chopping and changing going on and I want to know why.

"The distress for the residents is enormous and we are talking about very vulnerable people living here."

First published: August 17, 2005