A FAMILY who lived in a hut in a park refused to pay their rent due to its deteriorating condition in August 1966.

David Holborough, 29, said he would go to prison for the protest and claimed living in the Slade Park hut was harming the health of his youngest son, Warren.

The shop-manager said: "The roof leaks in several places and when it rains we have to use buckets to stop the water flooding the living room."

He lived in the hut, at 80 Ninth Avenue, Slade Park, with his wife Avis, 26, and three small children.

They had been forced to move in as a 'temporary' measure as they waited for a council house but stayed for three years.

The rent protest came because he felt the council had done nothing to repair the many defects in the hut, which was built out of wood and concrete.

This included a coal stove which 'smothered them in smoke' whenever it was used.