"Dreadful Mistake" Deprives Car Lady of Shelter

Council blames contractors after trees cut down around Ann Naysmith's home

A Council spokesman said that they were horrified to hear what the contractors had done to Ann Naysmith's garden. "Within a couple of hours we went down to the car park to meet Miss Naysmith, apologise and find out what we could do to rectify the damage. Miss Naysmith accepted our apology and that the damage was accidental. She said she would think about our offer to go with her to buy replacement plants at any time."

Suggestions that the mistake was an attempt to intimidate Miss Smith were vigourously denied by the Council.

They say that they have made every possible effort over the years to find a solution that would suit her and protect her independence. She has been offered a number of flats in Chiswick that she has turned down. Social Services continue to look after her health and welfare as much as she will allow, but she continues to refuse offers of accommodation.

Friends of Miss Smith claim that only the trees and shrubs around her shelter were cut and that the action was timed, just before the winter, to intimidate her into accepting more conventional accommodating.

Earlier this year the Council obtained a court order to removed the car in which Miss Naysmith had lived for many years in Prebend Gardens. She was offered alternative accommodating but preferred to live in the nearby shelter provided by the trees and shrubs.

October 19, 2002