A DISABLED former law lecturer is threatening to take Burnley Council to court after claiming planning bosses have breached her human rights.

Chris Zaba has lived in a mobile home on Spa Wood Farm, off Billington Road, Hapton, since March 1995 and has already unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to replace the building with a bungalow on the two-and-a-half acre plot.

Her full-time carer Catherine McManus, 56, lives in to look after Chris and help with cooking, cleaning and bathing.

But now Burnley Council's development control sub-committee has turned down her application for an extension because it contravenes local planning policies.

The farm is in the rural area where new development is strictly controlled. Now she is appealing against that decision and threatening to take her case to the court of human rights.

Currently both the kitchen and bathroom are inaccessible for Chris in her wheelchair, but the planned extension, which would have increased the space by a half, would have alleviated both problems by providing a larger kitchen and an en suite bathroom. It would also have provided space for a washing machine.

Chris, 57, who used to work at Worthington College, in Cumbria, said: " got approval from the council for a bungalow at committee last year but when it went to full council they overturned the decision because it went against council policy.

"The inspector upheld the decision on appeal because he said it was adequate for one person to live here, but there are two adults."

Now Chris, who is registered disabled following an accident in 1992 when she had to have a plate put in her back, is appealing against the latest decision and has said she will take her case to the court of human rights in the Hague if she has to.

"I believe they are contravening the Human Rights Act and I am prepared to go to court about it," she said. I want to challenge this council and the local planning department to come and spend a month here and see how we have to live."

Chris has recently been diagnosed with lymph cancer and is awaiting the results of a CT scan before having to attend the Christie Hospital in Manchester.

A spokesman for Burnley Council planning department told the meeting: "In view of the applicant's circumstances, the Human Rights issue needed to be carefully considered.

"It could be claimed that, because the council refused planning permission for the proposal, the action infringed the applicant's rights which are protected by the Human Rights Act.

"Human rights are material considerations which must be balanced against the other planning considerations.

"The Human Rights Act allows for infringement of human rights where this would be in the public interest.

"But on balance, on the information submitted, I do not consider the personal circumstances of the applicant outweighed the planning policies for the area."

Councillors agreed with officers and refused the application.

Development control committee chairman Coun David Halsall declined to comment on the situation.