UK Coal gives grandmother three months to leave home

A SHROPSHIRE GRANDMOTHER has been given three months to leave her home by developers UK Coal - despite looking after her three grandchildren as her daughter-in-law battles a brain tumour.

Lynn and Stanley Cain have been told by bosses at the firm that they will be evicted from their home on New Works Lane in Telford, next to a site currently being mined.

Mrs Cain, 57, said the eviction could not have come at a worse time as she was caring for her three grandchildren while her 26-year-old daughter-in-law was in hospital fighting a brain tumour.

The couple are being forced from their home of 10 years because landlords UK Coal want to sell the property located near the controversial opencast mine on Huntington Lane.

Mining chiefs say they need to sell the house to clear company debt. UK Coal spokesman Gordon Grant said the company was working with its estate agents to mitigate the impact for householders.

But Mrs Cain said she was desperate to stay.

"We got a phone call to say our daughter-in-law had a brain tumour and the next phone call was to say we had to get out," she said.

"The situation is absolutely awful. I have got to move, but I have no where to move to.

"I contacted UK Coal and told them the situation and at the moment we are in stalemate."

She added: "We have been here for 10 years and when we moved in the property was derelict and we have built it up.

"I don't think it matters to them what condition our home life is in."

Mrs Cain claimed at first UK Coal would not budge on the eviction date but after hearing her plight granted the couple a one-month extension.

"At first they had no compassion and then they said because of our circumstances they would give us another month. It's just heartbreaking."

Mr Grant added: "We have served notice on a number of properties as part of an ongoing wide re-structuring, aimed at streamlining our operations and safe guarding the jobs of 3,000 colleagues.

"These houses were rented to tenants in the knowledge that they could be sold for commercial reasons."

By Jason Lavan