A COUPLE face a bleak winter living in the only place they can call home...a lock-up garage.

Alan Yates, 43, and his partner Rosemary Spice, 47, have been living in the garage near Bell Close, Stone, near Dartford, for the past four weeks.

They sleep in a single bed, with a blanket for warmth, eat simple meals by candle light and wash in cold water.

Life took a turn for the worse when the couple were evicted by bailiffs from Mr Yates’ late mother’s home in Farnol Road, Dartford, in August.

Unemployed, they say they have no choice but to live in the garage they rented to store his mother’s possessions.

Mrs Spice said: “I never thought that it would come to this. But we did not make ourselves homeless. Someone else made us homeless. This is not our choice.”

Tom Carney, Dartford Borough Council spokesman, said: “Neither Mr Yates nor Mrs Spice followed the advice of the council, despite repeated meetings with council advisors. Had the advice been followed both Mr Yates and Mrs Spice would be in accommodation now.”

Mr Yates, a former British Railways worker, said: “We are not doing too badly at the moment but the winter is coming. The water runs down the walls and it is making things go mouldy.”

Mrs Spice said: “All we would like is a place where we can a have a shower in the morning, sit at a table and have dinner. A place where we have windows to look out from.”

The couple say they would like to work but Mr Yates said: “Without a permanent address, no employer is going to give you an interview.”