Council to evict caveman because his cave doesn't have a fire exit

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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With Health and Safety going completely over the top in Britain, this latest story isn't too much of a surprise.

An eco-warrior is being evicted from his cave in Brighton......because it doesn't have a fire exit.

Hilaire Purbrick is now claiming that the decision is in breach of his human rights.

Mr Purbrick has been living in the cave on an allotment for 16 years.

Articles Eight and Nine of the European Convention on Human Rights states that 'everyone shall have respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence' while Nine says 'Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.'

This isn't the first time Mr Purbrick has been the target of the loony, left-wing jobsworths who now run this great nation.

In 1999 town hall chiefs threatened to turf him out, claiming he was running an illegal vegetable shop.

But Mr Purbick won a repreive claiming his site' was hardly a Sainsbury's' and he only had one customer - a pregnant woman who bought his sprouts.

Caveman in human rights bid to stop council evicting him because cave doesn't have a fire exit

By Daily Mail Reporter
17th June 2009
Daily Mail


An eco-warrior who is being evicted from his cave home because it doesn't have a fire exit claims the move is in breach of his human rights.

Hilaire Purbrick dug a seven foot wide cave on his plot at an allotment 16 years ago and has been living on the site ever since.

But Brighton and Hove City Council have ordered him to leave the site immediately, citing health and safety concerns.

The 45-year-old said the eviction order breaches his automatic right to live as he wishes and is now taking his fight to the European Court of Human Rights.


Hilaire Purbrick, pictured in his home on his allotment site, claims his local council's decision to evict him from the property breaches his human rights


Brighton and Cove City Council had sought an injunction banning him from entering the cave, but he continued to live there.

However, today a judge granted the council a possession order which will allow Mr Purbrick to be formally evicted and banned indefinitely from the site.

He said he now had no choice but to take the case to the continent, claiming his eviction will be in breach of Articles Eight and Nine of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Article Eight states that 'everyone shall have respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence' while Nine says 'Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.'

Mr Purbrick said: 'I will take this all the way to the European Court. I am still living there and intend to continue to do so.'

He had argued that he was entitled to live there because he had a sub tenancy from a previous allotment holder.


Mr Purbrick has been living on site for 16 years and said others support him living there

Mr Purbrick claimed the council was in breach of its 'moral duty' to ensure that the communal gardens and the wildlife there were allowed to thrive.

And he vowed to install a fire exit after the cave was declared 'unsafe' by East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.

He said: 'The cave has been checked out by the fire brigade and has been declared unsafe because it doesn't have a fire exit.

'I know lots of people in this town who live in houses with only one door with no fire exit.'

But Judge Jonathan Simpkiss told Brighton County Court how there were health and safety concerns that the cave could collapse.

He added: 'The council considers this was a danger to life. They have a responsibility to the public'.

Mr Purbrick was left with no option but to go to Europe after the judge refused leave to appeal in a UK court, saying it was a 'hopeless cause of trying to resist the inevitable'.

However Mr Purbrick has a history of overcoming legal challenges to his cave dwelling.

In 1999 town hall chiefs threatened to turf him out, claiming he was running an illegal vegetable shop.

But Mr Purbick won a repreive claiming his site' was hardly a Sainsbury's' and he only had one customer - a pregnant woman who bought his sprouts.

The following year he successfully fought an eviction order after complaints he was keeping chickens and bees without permission.

dailymail.co.uk
 

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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I understand their concern. In the past million years we must have had at least, oh I don't know perhaps as many as ZERO cave fires.