A handyman has won a six-month battle against a £1,250 council tax bill levied on a shed he built for his mother-in-law to sleep in.

Julian Britton, 56, took legal advice when the demand appeared on his doormat 13 years after he had completed the project.

Rother council has finally backed down after first insisting the shed in Sea Road, Winchelsea Beach, was a separate property.

Mr Britton said: "It was no more a separate dwelling than all the other small summerhouses across the country.

"I shudder to think how much this has cost the council. What a waste of money."

Mr Britton had installed plumbing and used the 16ft by 10ft structure as a summerhouse for his wife's blind mother Olive, who occasionally stayed overnight.

But last October council officials demanded Mr Britton and his retired wife, Erica, 67, hand over £386 in back pay and a further £900 a year.

The bill, which amounted to 75 per cent of the annual council tax bill on their house, would have ruined the Brittons.

But a court case was avoided at the 11th hour after council officials backed down and agreed the shed did not constitute a separate dwelling.

They dropped the case because the summerhouse did not have a separate access to the road - something Mr Britton had been trying to tell them from the start.

He said: "I think the saving grace was I said I could not get services for which council tax is paid, like waste removal.

"There was no direct access to the summerhouse except by going through our house.

"I said this to them time and time again but for ages nobody listened."

Unaware of the implications of furnishing the shed, Mr Britton put in a bed and shower and toilet for his mother-in-law.

Olive moved into a nursing home last summer, aged 97, and was not no longer able to visit the Brittons.

It was briefly occupied by a woman who had been looked after by Mrs Britton when she worked as a carer for social services.

Mr Britton said: "A girl who had moved back to her home town, Wigan, wanted to come back and needed some help.

"We let her stay in the summerhouse for a few weeks but that is when it all went wrong.

"She started applying for all sorts of benefit, including housing benefit, which meant the council came round to inspect the summerhouse.

"They said it should be banded for council tax because it was fit for human accommodation."

Rother District Council planning committee chairman Charles Ramus and vice chairman Ronald Parren were unavailable and committee member Helen Bridger refused to comment.