Actress Greta Scacchi has said she has been driven out of her dream family cottage because of a bitter dispute with her neighbour.

Italian-born screen siren Ms Scacchi, 50, who starred in the films The Player and White Mischief, has been embroiled in a five-year legal battle over a driveway at her Hustpierpoint home.

The quarrel has already cost £250,000 in court and legal fees and the actress, her Italian husband Carlo Mantegazza and children Matteo, 12, and Leila, 19, have now moved saying the situation has become “unbearable”.

Ms Scacchi said: “I have loved this valley since my golden childhood memories and chose to raise my children in this simple, idyllic cottage.

"It should have been a refuge, a peaceful family home. But our harmony has been so compromised that I was recently forced to move my family to get away from the stress the situation has caused us.”

The family have now moved from the £850,000 cottage in Hurstpierpoint to a rented house in East Grinstead.

For the full story see today's Argus.