A SHOPKEEPER has been fined for living in his own home after failing to get planning permission to turn his converted stables into a house.

But Michael Ryan, 58, today insisted he would not move out of his home' at Graystones Farm, Roughlee, despite facing further penalties if he continued to live there.

Following the break-up of a relationship in 1998, Mr Ryan had to sell the farmhouse and converted barn he had owned since 1990.

But he kept the stables and spent £10,000 converting them into a house to live in.

However, he failed to get planning permission to change the use from an agricultural building to a home.

Council bosses said they would not allow the stables to be classed as a home because it went against their policy of allowing houses to be built in the countryside.

Pendle Council then served an enforcement notice demanding he stopped living there by June 20, 2005.

Mr Ryan lost an appeal and council officers obtained a search warrant in April and found him still living there.

Last week he was fined £750 and ordered to pay £900 costs after he was found guilty of failing to comply with the enforcement notice.

Today Mr Ryan vowed not to move out until the council found him an alternative place to live.

Mr Ryan, who owns East Lancs Model Aircraft Co, Church Street, Colne, said following the split, he decided to plough all his cash into his business rather than buy a house.

He added: "I have no money to go anywhere else. I am tied to living there.

"I am not going to be left walking the streets when I have got a roof over my head.

"The argument the council made is it did not want to see development of the countryside.

"That development is already there. It is only through a change of circumstances I am living there. These last eight years have virtually ruined my life.

"I think the council have been pedantic and unreasonable.

"They have not once offered anywhere where I can go. They don't seem to care where I go."

Mr Ryan said he applied for retrospective planning permission to live in the stables - which is made up of a lounge, kitchen and bedroom but no bathroom - but it was thrown out by the council.

He said he was now seeking legal advice about whether to appeal against being forced to move out.

Coun John David, executive member for planning said: "This prosecution should serve as a warning to people who think they can get away with ignoring planning decisions made democratically.

"Higher Graystones Farm is in open countryside, in an area of outstanding natural beauty and after considerable thought and debate the Barrowford and Western Parishes committee took its decision to prosecute."