Demolition workers were pelted with bricks

Bulldozers were sent in to destroy two extensions to a house in the heart of Gosberton in Lincolnshire.

It followed planning dispute with the owner of the site, Alan Garrard, 29.

He was arrested after refusing to leave the building. He was charged with a public order offence and obstructing a planning officer in his duty.

Mr Garrard built the Spanish-style property complete with outdoor swimming pool, which housed dozens of workers.

He was bailed on condition he did not to return to Gosberton and will appear before Spalding magistrates next Tuesday.

Gas cylinder

Police released a 20-year-old man who had been arrested without charge.

No-one was injured in the clash as 70 people, including woman and children, were removed from the site.

One man threatened to blow himself up

One man in the house threatened to blow himself up by lighting a gas cylinder.

Interpreters tried without luck to persuade the occupants to leave the house.

Calm was only restored when Gosberton's Methodist minister, The Rev Maurice Perry, entered the property to speak to them.

He said: "They were all feeling very much a sense of unity together - 'This is our patch, we are together'.

"They don't understand quite why they are being treated in the way they are being treated."

'Not in keeping'

South Holland District Council said the building on High Street in Gosberton, about eight miles from Spalding, was extended without permission.

Planning officials took action after residents in the village, which is home to about 1,000 people, complained about the extensions after they started to be built last May.

Locals claimed the new additions to the fifties building were not in keeping with the high street - which boasts a 14th Century church.

The council said it has issued several warnings to the owner of the property - and took action as a last resort.

The council's head of planning Steve Williams said: "At the root of it is a planning issue - we have two large extensions built on without approval."

He said the building is in the middle of a conservation area and does not fit into the surroundings.

'Unjust' system

Garrard allegedly refused to comply with enforcement notices served on him.

Last week, he held a protest at the district council's offices against plans to demolish the property and what he described as the council's "unjust" planning system.

Mr Williams insisted the tactics used to remove the workers were not heavy handed.

"I think we have done what was necessary," he said.

"We had to come in and we have to do this job."

The workers were taken to Gosberton Village Hall and will be offered alternative temporary accommodation by the council and churches in the area.

The local authority has a budget of �100,000 to pay for the action but said it hoped to reclaim all our costs from the owner.