A FAMILY, who packed their bags as they faced being thrown out of their Colney Heath home, won an 11th hour reprieve this week.

A bizarre consequence of planning regulations means the Clarke family are not supposed to live at White Barn on Tollgate Road, which they have made their home for the past four years, yet the barn could be used to house farmyard animals.

Planning officers believe the changes the Clarkes have made to the barn are a unacceptable adaptation of a former agricultural building set in Green Belt land and they should not be allowed to live there. But councillors voted on Monday not to evict the Clarkes, ruling the welfare of the family is more important than the planning rules.

Relief at the judgement will be felt far beyond the immediate confines of the Clarke family home, as 110 Colney Heath villagers signed a petition pleading with councillors not to throw the family out.

A relieved Joseph Clarke, 41-year-old father of the family of four, admitted after Monday's ruling: "We had packed up some of our things because we thought we would be turfed out of our home."

Councillor Robbie Ransted dismissed the planning rules and said: "We can keep cows at the barn but not people. If that's not nonsense, I don't know what is."

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of St Albans district councillors in February, where a final decision will be made.

Some councillors are determined to uphold the planning regulations when the matter is discussed.

Colney Heath councillor Susan Defoe said: "I am sympathetic that this will deprive a family of somewhere to live.

"I feel extremely sympathetic towards them, but this is a planning issue and the reasons for refusal should stand." The controversy of the Clarke's inhabitation of the White Barn - on the site of Colney Heath Farm - began in earnest four years ago when the family moved there from Finchley.

Mr Clarke, a 41-year-old panelbeater, claims he was unaware of the need to conform to planning rules when he made changes to the interior and exterior of the barn.

However, the district council did not view ignorance as a defence, and the family were warned they would have to quit the barn in early 1998.

Mr Clarke made another application to stay, and on Monday, the vote went narrowly in his favour.

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