Stray Ferret Focus: How we helped Harrogate disabled woman overcome three-year garden nightmare

Some articles can be written quickly. Others take time – sometimes rather a lot of time.

Welcome to our monthly look at what goes on behind the scenes when we are working on articles at the Stray Ferret. We think the effort we put in distinguishes us from the pack and hopefully provides an additional reason, beyond our seven-days-a-week rolling news service, to subscribe.

One example of this was my story about a disabled Harrogate woman's battle to get the council to clear 'waist-high' weeds in her garden.

Sometimes journalism can lead to a big change for many people. Other times, it can lead to a big change for just one person.

It’s the latter which is the subject of this month’s Stray Ferret Focus.

When Catherine Bradwell and her mum, Gaye, came into the Stray Ferret offices in November, they were keen to tell the story of Catherine’s situation.

Catherine, who has no use of her left arm and has limited mobility in her left leg due to an accident eight years ago, had moved into a property on Roberts Crescent three years ago.

Around that time, North Yorkshire Council had removed flagging in her garden — but this led to it becoming overgrown and unusable over the years.

What led Catherine to approach us was her multiple attempts to get the council to do something about it. The council pledged to visit the property in May and September this year, but this never happened.

As a result, she came to us armed with pictures, a letter to her MP and her story as to how this had affected her over the last three years.

She had been unable to use the garden due to it being “very overgrown and a waist-high mass of weeds” and had now gone another summer period without being able to use it.

We took Catherine’s story on and approached North Yorkshire Council to ask why it is taking so long to clear the garden.

On the Friday before publication, Gaye, Catherine’s mum, paid a visit to our offices. She said earlier that morning, council officers had visited the property at Roberts Crescent to arrange a time to come and clear the garden.

Naturally, Catherine was delighted that something was now being done.

Later that day, we received a statement from the council which said it had agreed to tidy the garden and put in plans for future maintenance.

It goes without saying that it should not take a journalist to approach the council for someone to clear and tidy up a disabled person’s garden.

However, this is what local journalism is for — keeping checks and balances on local authorities to ensure that they function as they are supposed to on behalf of residents.

For Catherine, it means that she will have a garden which she can spend time in after three years.

It may not be a radical societal change which this story has led to, but in Catherine’s case it is a big change and a weight off her shoulders. Journalism can be the catalyst for both.

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