Flimsy plastic barriers spark fury after human bones dug up in Coseley

Ann Mathers, who is 88, lives behind a public footpath in Coseley littered with bones and skulls taken from a nearby cemetery by burrowing badgers.

The badgers had also left gruesome body parts all over her garden. A council representative said the footpath is now blocked off from either end.

But, Mrs Mathers says the problem is not the right of way but the badgers and she wants the problem sorted.

She also says a flimsy plastic barrier will not stop people from using the right of way and the council “should be ashamed of itself”.

Mrs Mathers said: “No longer do I consider them a fair lot of people who are running the council at the moment. Should my garden be their land they would soon be getting it sorted.

“It’s the lack of concern that the council has known for a year plus about what’s going on and they have done nothing at all to get it mended. I think it’s an utter disgrace, and people expect to pay their rates for a council that cares and Dudley Council does not care.

“They installed a false stoppage which was a post and a plastic gate. That is no shut-off at all, they should be ashamed of themselves.

“It’s the people’s right of way and they’ve got every right to use it. The problem is the mounds of earth filled with bones that have been dumped there.”

Dudley Council has said it is working with an ecologist to solve the problem and in the meantime has erected barriers.

Councillor Shaz Saleem, cabinet member for highways and public realm, said: “We closed off the public right of way using barriers, and have been sending a highways inspector down there to make sure they are still in place.

“Unfortunately on more than one occasion since we closed it off, we have found the barriers on the ground and had to reposition them.

"We are stepping up the regularity of our inspections, and also looking at alternatives to make the closure more secure.”