A HORRABRIDGE couple— forced to live in bed and breakfast accommodation for the past 17 weeks after a mine shaft was discovered at their property at Copperfields — held a peaceful protest outside West Devon Borough Council offices in Tavistock on Tuesday.

The placard protest by Jean and John Coulthard was held for the hour before a 1pm meeting at the council offices between the borough officers, Zurich Insurance, Norwich Union and geologists Sherrells.

'It's quite embarrassing, but we're driven to it,' said Mrs Coulthard.

'Our business is being discussed in detail, yet neither ourselves nor our solicitor have been invited to attend.

'We've stayed at 14 or 15 different places, sometimes just for one night,' she said, explaining they had to find the places and pay themselves, then recoup the money — both of which had proved difficult at times.

'We've hardly unpacked our suitcase at times,' said Mrs Coulthard.

'At least it's been summer, but we can't stand the thought of it continuing through the winter.'

While Zurich Insurance cover the Coulthards' bungalow, their contents insurance — which includes public liability — is with Norwich Union.

'The Norwich Union have been very good, and the borough council's chief executive Mr Incoll has been helpful and done what he can,' said Mrs Coulthard.

West Devon had applied for a grant from the Regional Development Agency and English Partnership, which is normally available to cap old mine shafts, the couple added. However, this had been turned down.

'There are eight houses in St Ives in Cornwall which have mineshafts under them and they are paying for the demolition and gutting of some of them — but they won't fund our case,' Mrs Coulthard said.

The couple have received an offer from Zurich, but if they accept it the policy will be cancelled and the Coulthards will be liable personally for public liability.

'We can't accept it,' said Mrs Coulthard.

'We could be bankrupt. Also, if we had to pay for the capping of the shaft it would absorb the price of the house.'

With problems with mineshafts in other areas of Horrabridge, Devon County Highways had paid for capping the shafts under roads and the MOD had paid for work in their area.

'But if it's private land, you have to pay,' said Mrs Coulthard.

She added that a shaft in Chichester Court, Horrabridge, had collapsed ten days earlier and, of the six known shafts in the area, one was still unaccounted for.

The couple have written to Prime Minister Tony Blair — and Mrs Coulthard said the office of his deputy, John Prescott, is looking into the matter.

'We can understand this problem in old houses — they didn't have the technology to detect shafts — but this one is only 20 years old. Our protest might do no good at all, but we are desperate. We'd just like it to end.'

Nick Payne, head of the borough council's environmental services, said the meeting had been an 'exploratory' one with the Coulthards' insurers, loss adjusters and Richard Gould from Sherrells, to discuss how to take the matter forward.

'The meeting was positive and the insurers have gone away to consider a couple of options,' he said.

It was not the council's remit to 'broker a particular solution' he added, but their intent was 'to facilitate constructive discussion' in relation to the public safety element and the effect on Horrabridge in general.

Mr Payne said both he and the borough's deputy chief executive David Inman had spoken to the Coulthards outside the offices immediately before the meeting to explain they felt it would be a 'more productive meeting if undertaken without them'.

The council had contacted the Coulthards previously concerning accommodation, but at that time they were happy to live in bed and breakfast accommodation funded by the insurers, he said.

'If the situation changes we will look at that again,'Mr Payne confirmed.

He said he believed it was correct that a mine shaft had collapsed at Chichester Court and the MOD were dealing with the situation. He also believed it correct that there was still one shaft unlocated despite surveys carried out by Sherrells. He did not know of any further investigations planned to locate this.