Ebony, now I am armed with the information gathered from the links provided by flyboy, I will be giving the town hall a call next week.

Using my rather rusty German and schoolboy French, it appears that the decision to allow my girlfriend to stay is at their discretion to a huge extent. Hopefully I can go armed with all the information and assurances they need in order to obtain a residence permit for her.

Thanks to you both for your feedback. I will try and post updates as to my progress so other people in the same boat can benefit from my experiences.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Cheers, Cokernuts