More than 230 people have signed a petition in a bid to stop the eviction of a former Witham carnival queen.

Joanna Hendricks is battling to stay in the council house which has been her home for 20 years.

Jo, 27, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, has been told she will be taken to court if she refuses to move out of the two-bedroom house on the Templars estate in Witham to make room for a family.

Her mother, the official tenant, died in July last year and Braintree Council has refused to transfer the tenancy.

Joanna, the town's carnival queen 10 years ago, says the stress is exacerbating her crippling disease.

"The threat of being forced to leave the house I shared with my parents for 20 years is affecting my health both physically and emotionally,'' she said.

Joanna has turned down four other houses, one of them a two-bedroomed old person's bungalow.

"They seem to think it is acceptable to move me from one two-bedroom house to another two bedroomed house, where I would be surrounded by people 30 to 40 years older than myself.''

A council spokes-person said: "We always make every effort to meet people's housing requirements and find the best fit for their needs.

''In this case a ground floor flat would seem to be more suitable. There are many families looking for family size homes."

Joanna's friends and neighbours have signed a 230-name petition supporting her. She says she will send it to Braintree Council to back her case.

Published Thursday, April 17, 2003