A smallholder caring for 100 rescue animals has been ordered off her land by a council – despite the previous owner winning the right to stay.
Tracey Milton, 54, moved to the five-acre plot near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders around 14 months ago from Somerset, unaware that she may not be allowed to live on the land.
She now faces the threat of eviction and is determined to fight to stay in her home, where she cares for a variety of animals, including chickens, alpacas, geese, pigs, Shetland ponies, and even a parrot.
Tracey bought the land from its previous owner, who had been living in a static caravan on the property for years after successfully appealing a council decision in 2004. When Tracey moved in, she made an agreement with a neighbouring landowner to supply electricity and water.
However, just four months after settling into a new static caravan on the property, council enforcement officers arrived to inform her she had no legal right to reside there and ordered her to leave.
Tracey, who suffers from chronic COPD, depression, and has survived four mini-strokes, said she will stay and fight to remain on the land to look after the rescued animals.
She said: “Nobody once said we wouldn’t be allowed to live here. When we viewed it, there was a static caravan here. I brought the property as a residential property – all the paperwork said as much.
“This is my home. I have nowhere else to live. These animals – over 100 animals here – rely on me for everything. I’m feeding them and checking in on them three times a day.
“The council want to know why I’m not living somewhere else. I use a mobility scooter, and with the housing crisis, there is nowhere else I can live where I can get here three to four times a day to check the animals.
“There is electric and water and we pay our council tax – we’re not trying to hide anything.
“If we were told back then that we couldn’t live here, I wouldn’t have spent my money on the place.
“I need somewhere I can be with the animals because I don’t drive and a mobility scooter doesn’t get you that far.”
Tracey says she was never told that the previous residential permission was not transferable when she purchased the land. Legal checks conducted by her solicitor failed to uncover any restrictions, leaving her unaware of the potential issue until the enforcement officers showed up.
She, who regularly donates eggs from her chickens to the local foodbank, hopes to open her farm up for free visits from people with disabilities and mental health issues in order to help them as much as she says the animals have helped her.
She continued: “A lot of the animals we have here are rescues, because I can’t bear to see any animals get put to sleep.
“I’ve got to gather evidence as to why I need to be here on the land – which I think is obvious from all the animals – and to run it as a business.
“This place has helped me to no end with my mental health, and I want to open it up to people with disabilities and mental health problems.
“I don’t want to charge, I just want to pass on what I’m getting out of this to other people who are suffering as well.
“I don’t believe there’s anything like this around for people that doesn’t cost an absolute fortune. If I can pass on something to others, then it’s worth it.
“I’m not hurting anybody or causing any problems. I’ve got no close neighbours, and the distant neighbours that I do have are brilliant.
“They’ve brought their grandchildren up here and spent hours up here with the animals.
“I’m not causing a nuisance. I donate all the eggs to the Selkirk foodbank – I can’t eat that many eggs.
“I want to give back to the community, and if I can do that by opening it up and having even one person gain something from it, then it’s all worth it.”
Tracey says she will fight until her last breath to remain on the land, and able to look after her animals.
“This is my home – I don’t need anything big, and it suits me,” she said.
“I don’t believe I’m doing anything wrong. I’m just living a smallholders’ life. I can’t afford to run a big farm; I can’t afford to buy a big house with land attached to it.
“This is what I’ve spent all my inheritance from my parents on. I’m not prepared to leave. I will fight until my last breath to stay here.”
Scottish Borders Council believe says living on the land is contrary to its living in the countryside policies.
Planners also state that no economic justification has been provided for a continuation of the previous permission.
A retrospective application for residency was turned down, and an appeals review is currently being arranged by the local authority.
A spokesperson said: “At its recent meeting the Local Review Body agreed to continue the matter to enable the applicant to present their case in person.
“No further enforcement action will be taken until the Local Review Body reaches a decision on the application.”
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