TWO brothers are having to leave behind a house full of memories because they are being forced to move.

Douglas and Timothy Timms have been told that the local council needs their three-bedroom home in Witney for a family on its waiting list.

"It is not fair," said Douglas. "We've lived in this house since we were boys. It will be a wrench to move."

The two brothers have lived at the home in Eastfield Road, Witney, since the 1950s. Their parents were the tenants, but three years ago their father died.

Then last year their mother Phyllis died, aged 78, leaving the council with the right to repossess the house and award it to new tenants.

And that's just what West Oxfordshire District Council's housing department is now planning to enforce. They want the brothers out and a family from its long waiting list to move in.

Chief housing officer David Walters said: "We are sympathetic and realise this is a difficult decision to make. "But there are families with children living in poor housing with few facilities, and family accommodation like this is in short supply."

The council has offered Douglas, 53, and Timothy, 45, a two-bedroom flat at Wadards Meadow, Cogges. They say it is in a run-down condition.

"We were told it's either this or out on the street," said Douglas, a car worker at Rover's Cowley plant.

"To add to our problems, my brother's just lost his job.

"All our memories are in this house. And yet, under the Housing Act, we've been told we have no rights to stay here."

The council currently has a total of 84 families on its waiting lists in need of three-bedroom homes in Witney.

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