Mum Diana Crowder has won her battle to have her and her daughter a two-bedroomed council home - but is still being thrown onto the street.

The 34-year-old yesterday convinced a top judge to overturn Oxford City Council's refusal to re-house her and 13-year-old Jemma, who have had to share a double bed in their bedsit in Holloway, Cowley, since March last year.

But she will have to wait TWO YEARS until she is eligible for the new home after Lord Justice Brook, sitting in London's High Court, agreed the council could still evict her for being an anti-social tenant.

The council has accused her of violence towards a neighbour and late-night noise and yesterday's ruling means it can penalise her for her past behaviour by suspending her from the council housing list until 2000.

The authority's director of housing, Richard Peacock, said: "The council is delighted that we have won this case. It continues to demonstrate our firm commitment to resolving problems with people who are anti-social.

"We will now send her a letter." Mrs Crowder, who denies the harassment, said after yesterday's hearing: "We were glad the judge did go on our side. After so long we are pleased it's over and done with. "

Mrs Crowder was told by the council in September last year she must leave her home when they sent her a letter which began: "You are being evicted because of harassment of your next-door neighbour." She was told she would only be re-housed as a single person in future as the council was unconvinced her 13-year-old daughter, Jemma, had been living with her since her marriage broke up in 1996.

Lord Justice Brooke refused to interfere with the council's decision to evict Mrs Crowder, saying there was overwhelming evidence the council had no other option but to insist she move to another property.

But he overturned the council's refusal to find the couple two-bedroomed accommodation, saying it took a one-sided view of the evidence when it decided Jemma had continued living with her father, Neil Crowder, 34, who shares his home with son James, 15.

He told the court: "There were matters in which the council failed to take into account all that it ought to have taken into account. There were further inquiries the council ought to have made."

Heather Sykes, one of the solicitors at the Oxford Housing Rights Centre which helped Mrs Crowder with her case, said: "We are pleased with the finding of the judge that the council's decision regarding the allocation was wrong.

"We hope that the council will now take urgent steps to house Mrs Crowder and her daughter from the waiting list."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.