THE night that their severely disabled daughter kept them and their children up until the early hours of the morning was when Marie and Lester Roberts decided something had to be done.

Lester, 44, built a bed in the lounge of their house in Manor Road, Camborne - at the right height for his wife, who suffers from back problems - so they could perform physiotherapy on 18-year-old Laura, who has from cerebral palsy.

But although this meant their school age children were able to function at school during the day, with the eldest eventually going to university, there was no room for the family to move because of all Laura's medical equipment.

So in July last year they hit on a solution. Build a conservatory out the front of the house to store Laura's wheelchair, her specially designed bean bag and her oxygen concentrator.

However when the couple put in a planning application it was rejected as being too big and setting a precedent but despite that first setback they have applied again.

Planning officers from Kerrier though are still objecting to the proposal despite support from the majority of the Robert's neighbours and a site meeting takes place this Friday with councillors seeing for themselves the problems the family have to encounter.

"We are really angry because we have given all this information to the 21 councillors - from health and safety, letters from social worker and all the main issues relayed to them. They should have just passed it."

"The whole family is getting angry and very short tempered with each other because of a lack of space. It is causing real friction in the family.

"If planning permission to build a new factory that brings in jobs is asked for then that is given, whether it sets a precedent or not. If it is a young disabled girl then they are not interested."

Marie, 43, is having to put off an operation to repair her bad back and shoulder caused by years of lifting Laura in and out of her wheelchair

The operation would mean shaving her collar bone and could see her out of action for months

Looking after Laura since she was born, Marie's also suffered a nervous breakdown because of the pressures, forcing her husband to leave his jobs as a lorry driver in 1989 to help out.

Most of Laura's physio was done in the hospital but she hasn't been for a year now because she is aged 18 and 19 in March.

She suffers from cerebal palsy and has a badly twisted spine which puts pressure on her lungs. She is also severely epileptic.

"My main problem is she needs physio three times a day," says Mrs Roberts.

Three types of tubing throughout the house attached to Laura's oxygen concentrator lying on the floor.

The oxygen concentrator is in a stored bin at the centre of the house with tubes all over the floor. If the porch was built the concentrator could go in there and the tubing run through the walls rather than the floor, says Mr Roberts.

"The wheelchair won't go in the lift so we have to wheel her into the lobby area, get her out of the wheelchair and into a special chair in the lift."

The dangers of tubes lying all over the floor were illustrated recently when Marie tripped over one and stuck a fork into her eyebrow narrowly missing her eye.

The couple have three other children aged 20, 16 and 11 and as they grow the size of the house shrinks, which disrupts all their lives.

The family has also lost the original £1,000 deposit it made on the conservatory after the company they employed to do it went bust.

At the moment the wheelchair has to be left on the ground floor under the lift when Laura is up in her bedroom.

"If there was an emergency we wouldn't be able to get Laura down quickly because of the wheelchair under the lift. If we could store it out the front in this porch we would be able to overcome that," said Mrs Roberts

To accommodate Laura the downstairs bathroom has had to be extended losing part of the dining room which also has to take the space for the lift.

Her beanbag and bed, along with all the associated medical equipment, takes up most of the lounge and one daughter has had to have double doors installed in her room so the space can be utilised to get Laura into her room.

The couple say suggestions that the extension should be built at the rear of the house are impossible because the house is on a slope with the kitchen having a suspended ceiling.