COUNCIL boss Kate Hollern has apologised to a Blackburn couple who had their front wall wrecked by a bin lorry and then were told to dismantle some steps.

She said that if the steps have to go, the borough will pay for the cost as well as repairing the damaged wall.

The Blackburn with Darwen council leader said the letter received by Paul and Lynn King from a Town Hall official ordering them to remove the steps was ‘disgraceful’ and no similar letters would be sent again.

In October, a bin lorry knocked over the front wall of the Kings’ home in Borrowdale Avenue.

The council admitted liability, but instead of rebuilding the wall, the council sent them a letter demanding they pull down some garden steps, claiming they were ‘constructed across a service strip’.

The couple had no knowledge of this strip.

After meeting Coun Hollern on Monday, Mr King said: “Kate offered the council’s sincere apologies for the way the whole matter had been handled and promised a ‘standard letter’ like this would not be used again. We are very pleased.”