ACTION to carry out maintenance work in an old cemetery came too late for a pensioner who broke her ankle looking for a grave.

The 74-year-old lost her footing and tripped in a pot hole as she walked along a path close to her mother's grave in Darwen's West cemetery.

The accident happened three years after Mrs Jean Grundy, of Sidney Street, Darwen, first complained to her local councillor about the state of the burial ground.

She said: "I was taking flowers to my sister's grave when I decided to have a look for my mother's grave in the oldest part of the cemetery. I was in a lot of pain when I fell down the hole. I was on my own and had to hobble home on the broken ankle, it was awful.

"The area badly needs to be made safe for visitors. I don't think the council realises just how many people have relatives buried in the old cemetery and go to the graves regularly. "I have been forced to rely on a wheelchair for a month and have written a letter of complaint to the council."

Councillor Karimeh Foster, who has been calling on Blackburn Council to carry out more basic maintenance in the cemetery for the last three years, said: "The cemetery is in a very bad state. The footpaths are full of pot holes and an accident like Mrs Grundy's was waiting to happen.

"The council finally agreed to do something about the situation last week but they only made improvements around the entrance and it is not nearly enough.

" I believe it is very disrespectful of the council not to maintain the cemetery. It has virtually been left to rot. People pay their council tax and deserve the places where their relatives are buried to be looked after."

A council spokesman said: "We are aware of Mrs Grundy's accident and our staff are at the cemetery repairing the worst of the pot holes as part of a rolling programme of improvements."

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