A WOMAN who has had to put up with scaffolding in her small back garden for over a year is breathing a sigh of relief after it was finally removed last week.

Catherine Collyer recently had a knee replacement and at present can only move with the help of a mobility aid.

She likes to sit in her little back garden as the only outside space she has.

However, she had had the bars of scaffolding staring her in the face ever since scaffolding was erected a year ago for work to be carried out on the flat above her.

The work was eventually carried out four months ago, but the scaffolding is still there.

Catherine rents her ground floor flat in Giblands Park from social housing provider Sanctuary, living there with her son Alan Rhodes.

She said: “I have been ringing up about once or twice a week but nothing has been done. The work has been done upstairs but no one from Sanctuary knows who the scaffolding belongs to.

“I’m coming up for 74 in August. Last year I couldn’t use my garden. I don’t want that again this year.

She added: “Sorry’ is useless. Let me know where I stand with it. I’m paying my rent for a garden I can’t use.”

Catherine’s son Alan said: “Mum is partly disabled and is vulnerable. We have requested extra slabs for a level bit of path of mum but they can’t do it because of the scaffolding.

He added: “Something needs to be done. It has been going on for the best part of a year now.”

Following a request for comment by the Okehampton Times, Sanctuary arranged for the scaffolding to be removed last week.

A spokesperson for Sanctuary said: “While we can confirm the scaffolding was removed by our contractor on Monday 15 June, we are sorry that it took longer than expected to take it down and for the inconvenience that Mrs Collyer was caused.”