PENSIONER Mary Isherwood has been left a prisoner in her bungalow after council workmen ripped up a privet hedge she used to help her walk along her path.

The 77-year-old great grandmother says she has been waiting a month for the Bolton at Home to fix a handrail so she can get out of her home at Debenham Court, Farnworth. "I used the privets to steady myself. I have to walk with a stick but now I have to get the brush as well to help me get down the path. I am terrified of falling. If I end up on the ground, I will not be able to get back up again," she said.

Mrs Isherwood, who suffers from diabetes, has lived at the house for 19 years. "They came to take up the hedge and now it is tidier at the tip!" she said.

"Everything seems to be done in Bolton, but we are a borough. The council says it wants to get people on their feet, in my case it is getting me off my feet. Bolton at Home, it should be Farnworth at Home," added Mrs Isherwood who is a mother of nine. A spokesman for Bolton at Home confirmed that the privet hedge had been removed at the end of March. But she added: "work on a new fence post and a hand rail as well as the levelling of the flags will be carried out at Mrs Isherwood's home tomorrow."