A DISTRAUGHT mother is calling for council bosses to chop down the apple tree in her back garden after insisting: "It has cost my son his eye."

Rita Entwistle spoke out after her five-year-old son Simon was blinded in his left eye in an accident involving youngsters who have been congregating under the branches at her council home in of Railton Avenue, Blackburn.

She also called for a fence to be put up to stop children walking into her garden from an empty property nextdoor.

Today Blackburn with Darwen Council pledged to visit the garden to consider giving permission for the tree to be pulled down but said fencing work was a low priority. Rita said: "We knew something like this was going to happen. "Every year trouble kicks off with it. Sometimes we have had 14 or 15 kids in the back garden picking apples. But they are too small to eat and the kids throw them around."

Her son was blinded in one eye after he was accidentally hit in the eye by another child who was trying to knock apples out of the tree with a metal bar.

Rita is now trying to get compensation for her son's injury, but she said it would never have happened if the council had listened to her pleas for something to be done about the tree and the lack of fencing between her house and the house next door.

She said: "We did have some fences there then but when it was getting pinched I phoned the council up.

"I gave them names because they said they couldn't do anything without names, but nothing was done.

"If that fence had been there the kids wouldn't have been in my garden."

Now, since her next-door neighbours moved out the garden has been left full of rubbish and she added: "People have been coming and dumping their rubbish there as well.

"I have lived here all my life and they won't even put a fence up."

The mother-of-four said she is now afraid to let her children play out because of the rubbish at the back of the house and traffic at the front.

She said: "They are upstairs on the Playstation."

Simon's GP, Bhim Rakshit, of Kings Road Surgery, Blackburn, said: "Obviously he had this injury and he is still under hospital care.

"The injury was to his left eye and at the moment has lost his sight and we do not know if full sight will ever come back or not." Ian Bell, housing community services manager at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "Tenancy agreements do require a tenant to obtain the council's approval before felling a tree in their garden.

"Permission could be given providing the tree was not subject to a preservation order, but we have no record of a request from the tenant.

"The council do not undertake such work unless trees are in a dangerous condition.

"Fencing work is a low priority and is only able to be carried out when finances allow.

"Removal of the rubbish which has been left outside the adjacent property has been arranged and it will be cleared in the next few days."

Leading housing officer with Blackburn with Darwen Council, Gwyneth Sarkar, said arrangements were being made to visit the property next week.

"We will then make a decision on giving approval for the tenant to cut down the tree," she added.