THIS is our family home and we will be heartbroken if we are forced to move - that is the message from Startley gypsies Rosemary and Jim MacDonald.
The couple have lived at The Paddock, Heath Lane, in the hamlet near Malmesbury, for five years and are fighting to win a planning appeal that would legally allow them to stay there.
Despite owning the land, they have numerous applications to change its use to a residential gypsy site turned down by North Wiltshire District Council.
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They have also lost a previous appeal at a public inquiry.
Mrs MacDonald said she is tired of the continuing battle and just wants a place to bring up her daughters, who are aged eight and ten.
"We have got nowhere else to go," she said. "This is our home now. We can't afford to move, so this is it now.
"It would be so nice for the council to give a bit of leniency and have a look at the way we have developed the land and to see how nice it looks.
"We have never given any trouble to the neighbours and it would just be nice to be accepted as part of the community.
"People think of the word gypsy and don't want them in their back yard.
"Certain people think we shouldn't even be breathing the same air as them.
"All I want is just somewhere decent to raise my children and that's all. It's just what any normal human being wants. I love it here and if I ever did have to move I would be heartbroken."
But other residents in Startley do not believe the family should be living there without permission.
Roy Metcalfe is chairman of the residents' association and the immediate neighbour to the camp, where he said three families were living.
He said it is far from a suitable site for them to be based on. "There is no infrastructure in place and no mains drainage," said Mr Metcalfe.
"It's on a little, tiny road and it's not able to take these big wagons on a regular basis. There is a lot of noise and commercial activity going on," he said.
The final date for residents to submit their objections to the planning inspectorate is tomorrow.
Mr Metcalfe said they would then have to nervously wait for the appeal decision. "There is a great concern, which is why there is so many objections going in," he said.
The council refused the most recent application in January.
Planning officers said the proposal was unacceptable because it was "located remote from services, employment opportunities and unlikely to be well served by public transport".
Mrs MacDonald said they would keep fighting, even if their latest appeal is turned down.
"We will just appeal it again and fight it to the end," she said. "I'm only fighting for what I know is mine."
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