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You are in: Somerset » Closer to you
THIS STORY PUBLISHED:
06 September 2003 1109 BST
With a huff and a puff...
Caroline Barry
Caroline Barry watches as her straw house is demolished. Can it be rebuilt in time?
For years, a Somerset villager has been battling with local planners about her straw house. They say it is permanent and that she doesn't have planning permission. To prove it is temporary, she intends to demolish and rebuild it over a weekend...
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Eight years ago, Caroline Barry fulfilled a dream when she bought a piece of land near the Somerset village of Butleigh (near Glastonbury) where she was born.

Caroline's original home
Caroline has her original home demolished

She had always wanted to farm and finally she had her chance.

She began rearing livestock and was subsequently given permission to live in a temporary home on the land for a couple of years to be near her animals.

But building her straw house was the beginning of a four-year battle that has ended with her being forced to pull it down.

Man carrying a window frame
The windows are removed from the old house

Caroline has given herself four days to pull it down and put a new one up.

So she's set herself the challenge to rebuild the house in a weekend, but there's a big problem.

She still doesn't know what she can and can't build as planners admit they have no set rules on what makes a home temporary.

Most of those who are helping Caroline are volunteers.

Two men strip off roofing material
Volunteers remove the roof of the house

The house is built like a loaf of sliced bread where the roof and the end walls are the crust.

Once the crust is off the slices can then easily be removed one at a time.

Wall collapses
A wall is demolished

Once the original house is down, Caroline and her team have three days to build a new one which has tyre foundations and also meets other regulations.

Man positions straw
Straw for Caroline's new house is put into position

But it is temporary?

Can it be taken on and off the land in one go, like a caravan?

Planners won't be making any decisions before their next meeting later in the year, and one thing's for sure it won't be a SIMPLE decision.

As the new house reaches completion, Caroline knows that getting planning permission isn't her most immediate concern.

Because the argument has gone on for so long, her original permission to live there has expired.

In short, by living in her new home Caroline faces a criminal prosecution.

So the little pig, who successfully rebuilt her straw house, isn't out of the woods yet.

>>> Watch the full story on Inside Out on BBC ONE West at 7.30pm on Monday 8 September

>>> You can follow the construction of another straw house here on the BBC Somerset website in the next few weeks

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