Councils can delay rehousing "nuisance neighbours", the High Court has decided.

Pamela Giles, from Basingstoke in Hampshire, had challenged a local housing authority's decision not to allocate her and her children a property for five years.

Mrs Giles's lawyers argued in the High Court that the council did not have the power to penalise applicants in this way for past misconduct.

But on Friday the High Court said the law gave councils wide discretionary powers, including the power to defer the allocation of homes to people evicted due to bad behaviour.

'Grossly offensive'

Deputy High Court judge Michael Supperstone QC said Mrs Giles and her husband - the couple are now separated - had been tenants of a local housing association.

They became involved in a row with neighbours in 1997 after erecting a fence at the front of their property which they subsequently refused to remove, even though it obstructed other people's rights of way.

In October 1997, the husband was convicted of sending "grossly offensive and indecent" letters to a neighbour.

Two years later, the couple were evicted from their home because of the nuisance they had caused.

They were placed in a bed and breakfast and told their application for a council tenancy would be deferred for five years because of their behaviour.

Rejecting the application for judicial review the judge said housing authorities had the power to delay such applications.