A mum has won her two-year battle to make a council remove broken glass from her garden.

Alison Wardle, 26, of Westdale Drive, Pudsey, even threatened to take Leeds City Council to the High Court in London to get the glass, which is embedded all over her back lawn, taken away.

Her six-year-old daughter Zoe could not use the garden because of the dangerous shards which neighbours said came from a greenhouse which was demolished before she moved into the house in February 1997.

But after the Telegraph & Argus took up her case the Council has relented and agreed to clear the site as "a gesture of goodwill'' although it has still not accepted responsibility.

Miss Wardle said: "I'm absolutely delighted. I've sat and cried about this so many times but now I can finally have a garden.

"I'm a keen gardener and it will mean I can do everything I've always wanted to do when I first moved in. Zoe can have her Wendy house and a swing my brother-in-law bought for her in there as well. I'm so grateful to my solicitor and the T&A for their help."

Bill Balmer, of Bradford solicitors Kenningham, Underwood, Armstrong, has been in charge of Miss Wardle's case since the outset.

He said: "It appears my client has won her battle to get the land cleared but this action should never have been necessary in the first place.

"The Council should have done the work under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 because it was a statutory nuisance."

Despite employing Mr Balmer and having an independent assessment of the site by an environmental heath consultant, Leeds City Council persistently refused to clear the site, saying it was not its responsibility.

The Council did, however, remove eight bags of low grade asbestos from the site after it was also revealed in the health consultant's report.

A Leeds City Council spokesman said: "The Council does not accept liability for clearance work of this sort, but has agreed to clear it nevertheless as a gesture of goodwill."

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