IT'S over. The two-month protest against eviction carried out by Morecambe's Tague brothers was brought to a dramatic climax on Monday. First, Chris Tague was cut out of the steel cage that has been his home since January and then his brother Andrew had to be man-handled down from the roof of their Parliament Street home. This was the last stand taken by the brothers who have been fighting an eviction order imposed so that Lancaster City Council can demolish the street and turn it into a car park.

Bailiffs forced their way into the property at about 8.30am after the brothers refused to answer the door. They discovered Chris reading in his cage and then realised Andrew, who had been sleeping upstairs, had leapt onto the roof.

The officers wasted no time in picking up Brenda Tague, the pair's mother who had been staying with them, and carried her out onto the street, where she collapsed and was rushed to hospital by ambulance.

They then set about sawing through the thick steel bars of the cage door behind which Chris, 28, has been living since he learned of his imminent eviction.

But, after a fruitless 45-minute struggle, they hatched a new plan to reach the protester - by knocking down his bedroom wall and cutting through the cage's wire mesh.

Chris was then lifted out and forced to watch his brother's roof-top protest from behind police barriers.

A crowd of supporters gathered on the street cheered as Andrew, 31, sat perilously close to the roof's edge, swinging his legs.

Negotiators tried for more than two hours to talk him down, but to no avail.

He was eventually brought down when officers dragged him onto a a platform suspended from a crane, and he was hoisted from his roof-top position.

When he reached solid ground, Andrew said his first thought was for the health of his mother.

He then stated: "I don't know what our plans are now. All we have done is to buy a house, live in it for seven years and not accept the council's offer of £17,500."

Chris said: "It's disgraceful that they left us for two years with the same offer. Now we will see them in court."

After the drama, Lancashire's Under Sheriff Andrew Wilson admitted: "Mrs Tague was very emotional. She fainted and we did call an ambulance and she was taken at once to the hospital.

"I feel that the Tagues could have made life a little easier for myself and themselves - but I think they have made their point."

He added that the brothers' property would be removed and put into storage by the council. Demolition has now begun on Parliament Street.

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