A FINANCIALLY naive widow will not lose her home after being talked into taking a mortgage to help her former son-in-law invest in his employer's business.

June Oliver, 63, was persuaded to borrow £21,000 on her former house in Telcroft Close, Corsham, shortly after the death of her husband.  Her daughter, Cora Scott, said the money was for her husband, Darran, to invest in Impact Windows, where he was the sales manager.

But, only £11,000 of the money was invested in the business, which has since gone into liquidation.  Of the rest of the money, £2,000 paid off Mr Scott's debts and credit-card bills and £8,000 paid for an extension to the Scotts' home in West Park Road, Corsham.  The couple are now divorced and living at separate addresses in Corsham.

This week, the Appeal Court upheld a High Court ruling last year that former dinner-lady Mrs Oliver had taken the mortgage due to "misrepresentations and undue influence by her son-in-law".  The case against Mrs Oliver, who now lives in Bristol, had been brought by the mortgage company, Cherrytree Finance.

The three Appeal Court judges agreed with the original High Court judge, who said that Mrs Oliver had taken the mortgage shortly after being widowed, was "unacquainted with commercial affairs" and relied for advice on her daughter and son-in-law, who had nine county court judgments against him.

Although she had initially stalled over the arrangement, Mrs Oliver eventually signed the mortgage agreement, believing the assurances that she could not lose the home she had shared with her late husband for 30 years.  She did not know what was meant by the word `security' in financial terms and had no idea what shares were.

A ROW is brewing between Wootton Bassett Chamber of Commerce and Twinning Association over festivities to cement relations with the French town of Blain in July.  Wootton Bassett will be twinned with Blain at a civic ceremony at St Bartholomew and All Saints Church on July 28.

The twinning ceremony will be attended by councillors and community members, and a number of French visitors and dignitaries including Blain Mayor Giles Heurtin.  But Chamber of Commerce president, Philippa Lawrence, has claimed the French guests will not be spending enough time in Wootton Bassett.  She said this was of concern because the town council had contributed towards the cost of the twinning.

The council gave the twinning association a grant of £1,500 to help with the costs of the visit, and also made a second loan of £1,500 which will be repaid to the town by the European Commission. Ms Lawrence is angry because the French visitors will be treated to a traditional Sunday lunch in Brinkworth.She said it meant the French will only be spending a few hours at the French Festival hosted by the town council.  She said: We're upset about the situation. Traders in the High Street are feeling the pinch because of foot and mouth and they are furious the visitors are going out of town for lunch.

We want to know why the French guests couldn't have lunch in the local pubs and spend more time at the festival. That way everybody could have had a sprinkle of the money.  Taking people out of Wootton Bassett makes our businesses look silly. It looks as if Wootton Bassett can't accommodate them, she said. Twinning chairman Anne Pope said there were no premises in Wootton Bassett large enough to accommodate and provide food for up to 120 guests on a busy Sunday. She said the town council grants were being used to cover the twinning ceremony, and to provide food and accommodation for the visitors during their four-day stay. The association was paying for the lunch in Brinkworth.

AS the foot-and-mouth crisis drags on, a company at the heart of the farming industry is seeing its problems escalate. Countrywide Farmers in Melksham says its main customers are farmers. John Rutherford, managing director, said the business was suffering as much as the farming community and as many as 100 of his customers had had animals slaughtered.

"It is a very worrying time for the rural community and the business is coping with what is being thrown at it," said Mr Rutherford.

During March the business would expect to take over £500,000 in crop protection chemicals. This March it has been around £100,000.  Mr Rutherford said he knew of one farmer near Melksham who had been living in a caravan for five weeks, unable to return to his home farm.  Countrywide is supplying extra winter food to farmers who are being forced to keep their livestock inside because of foot-and-mouth and the appalling spring weather, but Mr Rutherford said there was still a lot of uncertainty over the future.

Dumping ground

Foot-and-mouth crisis Day 42; No fresh outbreaks in Wiltshire for 23 days. Now, animal carcasses are being brought in from other counties to be buried on our doorstep.  WILTSHIRE has become a dumping ground for thousands of animals killed in the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture has requisitioned a landfill site next to the Blue Circle cement works at Westbury to bury slaughtered farm animals from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

The mass grave is close to a suspected new case of foot-and-mouth ­ which could be the first outbreak in Wiltshire for three weeks. Tests on animals at Horse Croft Farm, Westbury, are still being carried out.

Another landfill site near Calne, also owned by Viridor Waste Management, is already being used to bury animals as lorry loads of pig carcasses were dumped in a five-metre deep trench cut out of a rubbish mound.

Anxious county council and local NFU officials were meeting yesterday with MAFF to determine that none of the slaughtered animals being brought to Wiltshire for burial were infected.

Wiltshire County Council leader Peter Chalke attacked the Whitehall department for spreading confusion over the issue.  He said: "Everyone has been told different stories and we must know exactly what is going on. It is really unacceptable behaviour from a department obviously floundering.

"The county council knows more about what is going on than MAFF."  Wiltshire NFU chairman Denise Plummer insisted the county must not take infected animals for burial. She said: "Unless there are guarantees we do not want any of it. We are not prepared to jeopardise the county, and the farmers I represent, and take the risk.

Farmers close to the Westbury burial site are also furious at the decision to dump carcasses there.  Graham Avery, whose herd of dairy cattle is 500 metres away from the Westbury tip, said: "Nobody really knows if those animals might have been infected." The news is the latest environmental blow to hit Westbury.

The town is already the subject of a major clean-up operation on a toxic waste dump at West Wilts Trading Estate after site operators Premiere Environmental went out of business.  And there is a lot of local opposition to plans by cement works operator Blue Circle to start burning tyres as fuel.

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