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June 30, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 3:56pm

Gardening leave helps OAP

By Press Gazette

By Sarah Lagan

Birmingham Evening Mail deputy editor Colin Clark took time out of
the office to do a bit of gardening after an 86-yearold pensioner
became trapped in her home because council workers would not tidy her
garden.

Armed with strimmers and shears, Clark and the paper’s gardening
correspondent, Andy Coleman, cleared the garden, which was covered in
4ft high stinging nettles.

Widow Ida Holland, who has no children
or relatives, had been on the council’s waiting list to have her garden
tidied for almost a year.

Clark said: “With tools out of my garden shed, we managed to clear the lot in just over two hours of hard graft.

“It might not be up to Alan Titchmarsh standards, but at least she can hang her washing out and have a sit in the sunshine now.”

Clark is editing the paper until the arrival of new editor Steve Dyson from The Gazette in Teesside.

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