HISTORIC stone troughs which Lancaster's ex-MP took as a souvenir of her time in the city have been ordered home. Dame Elaine Kellet Bowman caused a furore among local historians when she disappeared with the 300-year-old relics from her grade two listed farmhouse Slyne Lodge last December without asking the council. Since then, she's applied for permission to keep the troughs but was knocked back by councillors at a meeting on Monday who said their loss was detrimental to the character of the area.

Allan Rushton, chairman of the Slyne-with-Hest Local History Group said he was delighted with the decision. He said: "If she had been granted permission it would have set a precedent. The stones belong in the locality and should stay here."

At monday's meeting Cllr Paddy Kavanagh said they could not allow people to take such antiquities without checking with the authorities. "It's sending out the wrong signals to people. If she had checked with the council in the first place I probably wouldn't have opposed this application," he said.

Members of the village history group were first alerted to the affair when they saw a fork-life truck and a removal van entering the grounds of Slyne-with-Hest. She also took two stone balls but the council's legal department said they were powerless to order them back.

In her defence Dame Kellet-Bowman claimed the troughs had been hidden for a long time until she cleared them from the undergrowth while she was gardening.

Cllr Sybil Rostron described the decision as a storm in a tea cup.

A planning spokesman said Dame Kellet Bowman would be informed of the decision and given the opportunity to appeal against the decision or return the troughs.

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