Ian Burke, the solicitor representing 72-year-old Muriel Aldin, who lives in a small caravan at Westfield, will meet Scottish Borders Council planning officials to discuss a dispute which spans four years.

Local councillor Kenneth Gunn this week vowed to lie in front of the caravan if any attempt was made to tow it away. His Selkirkshire colleague Vicky Davidson urged a deferral of enforcement until the predicted increase in homelessness, caused by the credit crunch, is assessed.

Mr Gunn made his pledge after learning an estimated 100 families across the region are residing in caravans without planning consent.

He told The Wee Paper: "What appears to make Mrs Aldin a special case is that she has been paying council tax to the same local authority that wants to evict her."

But the smallholder's campaign to remain on her land seems doomed to failure, with SBC's enforcement officer Alan Gueldner confirming this week: "Sooner or later, she will have to go".

Mrs Aldin remains defiant. She told us: "I've been here for more than four years, paying my taxes, and I don't see why I should be singled out for persecution. With so many homeless people already in the Borders, why add me to that list?"

In 2004, she bought six acres of land for her retirement at Westfield just north of Midlem. She now runs a livery stable and has created an all-weather riding arena. She has a small flock of sheep and supplements her pension by selling eggs from her 30 hens.

Following a complaint from a Midlem resident, Mrs Aldin applied for planning consent to live in her caravan on the site. This was refused by SBC's planning committee which later knocked back her proposal to build a small wooden house nearby.

Both bids, it was determined, breached SBC's housing in the countryside policy because the site was outwith the village boundary and was not part of an established building group.

Mrs Aldin lodged an appeal to the then Scottish Executive, but this was also rejected and she was given 18 months to find alternative accommodation.

When that deadline passed in September last year, SBC's planning committee, despite a petition from 50 of the pensioner's supporters living in Midlem, backed direct action by its enforcement officers to force the caravan off the site. The same officials were also empowered to report her to the Procurator Fiscal for breaching a previously issued enforcement notice.