PROTESTERS occupying an Oxford boatyard have lost their final court battle to stay at the site, but won the judge's support.

About 20 people have been living at the Castle Mill boatyard, in Jericho, since last August in a bid to keep the yard for community use. Owner British Waterways is days away from agreeing the sale of the land.

Last week, it issued the squatters with an eviction notice, which allows bailiffs to remove them at any time from now until June 9.

Boatyard campaigners Matt Morton and John Keyes this week appeared at Oxford County Court in the hope of persuading Judge Tom Corrie to suspend the eviction notice on the grounds it was unfair and "impossible to compy with". They want to stay at the site until an alternative boatyard is set up.

Although Judge Corrie, who keeps a boat, said he sympathised with their cause, he said he had no legal powers to suspend the eviction and there was only a moral obligation on the landowners to provide alternative facilities.

He said: "It has a powerful moral obligation to enable or provide alternative boatyard facilities for the public good. It may be that many people have a lot of sympathy with you, including myself.

"There is a strong public interest and a public body should do something about it, but whether the court has any power to require that is in dispute. It seems there is little I can do or say, but I should have thought the weight of public opinion would be against British Waterways."

British Waterways produced a map of the area showing three other sites where boats could be repaired, but both the judge and the protesters questioned whether they were equivalent to the Castle Mill site.