A VETERINARY nurse could lose her home and be forced to close her animal sanctuary if a council decision is upheld.

Wendy Lacy has been refused planning permission for her caravan on a seven-acre smallholding, where she cares for abandoned animals.

Ms Lacy and her partner, Philip Lowery, sold their house three years ago, which allowed them to buy the caravan and move on to the land to be closer to the animals.

Ms Lacy plans to appeal against the decision by Stockton Borough Council, but said that defeat would mean the sanctuary's closure.

A member of the British Horse Society, she bought the land at Norton, near Stockton, in 1991, in order to care for old and neglected horses.

However, the sanctuary grew as the RSPCA, work colleagues and other animal-lovers asked her to look after other needy creatures.

Now she has rabbits, sheep, chickens, cats, dogs, and often cares for wild animals on the site.

She said: "I would always stay and look after the animals in a smaller caravan we had here.

"But really, it got to such a state that we had to be here full-time. Given that there was a caravan here already, I just didn't think there was a problem with me being here all the time.

"It was a shock when a man from the council came and said we had to apply for permission retrospectively.

"When the news came that we were going to be denied our right to live here, it was awful.

"We fund the costs of running this place ourselves, aside from the occasional car boot sale and other small fundraising events.

"We are planning to appeal and I just cannot face the prospects of us losing."

A spokesman for the council said: "The decision was taken that Ms Lacy had not demonstrated there was a real need for this facility.

"You have to demonstrate that any new building in the countryside is financially viable.

"Ms Lacy failed to satisfactorily show there was a functional and financial justification for this caravan."