Yeovil tenants evicted from home of 25 years for A303 scheme

Martine Hardy and Iain Aird said the scheme would only impact a small part of the property

Two tenants living near a road-widening project have been evicted from the home where they have lived for 25 years.

Iain Aird and Martine Hardy, who have lived in Camel Hill House, Yeovil, since the 1990s, say they are now homeless.

"The eviction was fairly brutal," said Mr Aird.

National Highways is upgrading the A303 which crosses the property and said its decision to evict them was not taken lightly.

"But the property will be severely impacted by noise and dust through the next stage of construction," a spokesperson for the government company said.

It was given permission by the government in late January to widen the A303 between the Podimore and Sparkford roundabouts in Somerset.

But Mr Aird and Ms Hardy said the project would only impact a small part of the property where they lived.

"It is a scandal, we are not bad tenants," Ms Hardy said.

"We always paid our rent on time."

Mr Aird said he believed they were evicted so the house could be sold for more money.

"It was needless - but it can be on the open market now," he said.

Mr Aird said they had no personal communication with National Highways.

"It is malicious and brutal and nobody seems to be accountable" he said.

David Warburton, MP for Somerton and Frome, expressed his concerns over the eviction in a letter to Highways England.

"I am at a loss to understand why the road scheme should impact the tenancy of the house when only a small parcel of land in the grounds is needed for the road scheme and when the tenancy appears to pose no obstacle to the road building," he wrote.

However, National Highways said it had "been liaising with the tenants for some time".

"Unfortunately, we have reached the stage where any further delays would have directly impacted on the scheme and our ability to deliver the much-needed improvements.

"It is with regret that we have had to serve an eviction notice and the tenants have now vacated the property."

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