THE proprietor of an antiques enterprise at Badshot Lea is making her latest bid to hang on to her business, through a planning application submitted to Waverley Council. Hilary Burroughs, who has been operating the Antiques Warehouse for the last 13 years within two Elizabethan tithe barns at Badshot Farm, St George's Road, has applied with her husband, Peter, for continued use of the units for the sale of art, antiques and collectables. The business provides space for numerous small tradespeople to display their wares, but in recent times has operated under the shadow of council enforcement action. In the past, more than 5,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition asking the council not to close the warehouse down. For although Hilary and Peter Burroughs successfully received temporary personal retail planning permission for the antiques centre, the consent expired in 2002. Since that time their landlord has attempted without success to gain permission in his own name and an enforcement notice was issued by the council last year, giving six months for the use to cease. As the landlord's efforts to gain permission have not proved successful, Mr and Mrs Burroughs have again applied - for permission for a limited period while they personally are in occupation. Mrs Burroughs told The Herald: "This use of the previously derelict barns is a very appropriate small-scale retail use, which contributes to the diversity of the local economy, and brings new visitors to the area. "The Antiques Warehouse is an environmentally friendly business, offering good quality antiques a new life by restoring them for sale, and thereby recycling them for use in modern homes. This type of business generates less traffic, noise and problems than any other currently allowable planning use, and allows the barns to be kept in their open and unadulterated state for visitors to enjoy." Among the many supporters of the business, she claims, are both Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey and Shadow Culture Secretary, and Gerald Howarth, MP for Aldershot and Shadow Defence Minister.