RESIDENTS of a unique community in North Yorkshire are to meet with county council officials to discuss fears about changes to their way of life.

Dozens of learning disabled residents of the Botton village community travelled with the co-workers, who live and work alongside them, to County Hall in Northallerton today (Tuesday, March 10) for a planned protest.

They were calling for a response to a petition they sent to the council four weeks earlier.

It has been signed by 75 per cent of the learning disabled residents and was calling for the shared living with co-workers and their children in Botton, near Danby in North Yorkshire to continue.

But the protest was called off when council officials agreed to meet with the group this Thursday (March 12) for a two hour meeting.

Eddie Thornton, one of the community’s co-workers who travelled to County Hall said: “We’re basically calling on North Yorkshire County Council to respect the freedom of choice of their most vulnerable residents in how they wish to receive care.”

One of Botton’s residents, Gabrielle Werth, said: “We want to have normal house parents and co-workers and lead ordinary lives. It’s a very special place Botton. We have spirituality. I want to tell that to North Yorkshire.

“We want them to know Botton is a nice place. We want them to listen to what we say and we want it to be back to normal again.”

The Camphill Village Trust (CVT), which runs the community, has said the changes are due to tax reasons, as HM Revenue and Customs said the co-worker arrangements at Botton could no longer continue as it risked co-workers being seen as avoiding tax and the charity incurring penalties.

Eviction notices have been served on co-workers at Botton Village.

CVT has said they had no plans to move people it supports in the community in the immediate future unless they had a desire to do so and its focus was to ensure people with learning disabilities and their families were supported through change.