A DROITWICH farmer has failed in his High Court challenge to keep a mobile home on his property.

David Doe, a game-bird keeper from Cooksey Green, challenged a decision by a Government inspector, but has ended up having to pay £7,500 in legal costs.

The inspector had backed a decision by Wychavon District Council forbidding Mr Doe to keep the mobile home on his property.

However, Mr Doe, who keeps 300 ducks and chickens at Cornshire Fields Farm, Elmbridge Lane, claimed the mobile home was necessary to keep a 24-hour watch over his birds all-year round, and challenged the decision in the High Court.

But Mr Justice Ouseley dismissed Mr Doe's challenge, saying the poultry needed round-the-clock care for only three months of the year and a mobile worker's home was not necessary.

Tim Williams, case officer at Wychavon District Council, said the council had issued Mr Doe with an enforcement notice to remove the mobile home in April 2001, following a complaint.

Mr Doe had appealed against the enforcement notice but failed, in December 2001.

In the meantime, he had also applied for planning permission for the mobile home, but this was refused, in August 2001, after council officers recommended it for refusal because it would conflict with the local plan and be harmful to the green belt.