Express & Star

'We did not remove tributes to two young boys who died in Birmingham New Road crash' - says council

A council says they aren't responsible for the removal of a memorial for two boys who died in an horrific crash.

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Wolverhampton Council said it has not moved the memorial placed for 23-month-old Pawanveer and his 10-year-old brother, Sanjay Singh, who were killed in a devastating car crash on the Birmingham New Road in March 2019.

The tributes mysteriously disappeared last week when the family went to place new teddies at the memorial for Pawanveer's birthday on March 23, finding that the banner, flowers, pictures and heartfelt messages had all been removed.

Now, after releasing an appeal through the Express and Star for the return of their beloved items, Wolverhampton Council has said it is not responsible for the removal of the memorial.

A Wolverhampton Council spokesperson said: "I can confirm that we have not removed these tributes.

"In such cases where we do remove tributes, this is done so in a sensitive manner and family members are informed and invited to collect the tributes which we will have stored for them.

"But in this case, we haven’t had any involvement."

Wolverhampton Council confirmed that they aren't responsible for taking down the vigil

The response from the council has led to the family to issue a fresh appeal, asking for the safe return of their beloved items.

Kam Nicky Mattu, brother-in-law of crash survivor, Arathi Nahar who was the mother of the two boys, said: "It is really strange that these tributes have gone missing. We just want to know what happened.

"We were visiting the site to change out some of the teddies that had become weathered and we found that the items had disappeared."

The vigil mysteriously disappeared over the last few weeks, with the family saying they are confused as to where it has gone

Kam was told that the banner of the tribute had gone missing, however, when he got to the site, he found that all of the items that had been placed vanished.

He continued: "It would have been Pawanveer's birthday on March 23. A lot of the items there are special to the family. We would have liked to have kept them.

"We are really just looking to find out why it was removed, it's just confusing. It came as a bit of a shock, to be honest. It would be nice to be able to get some of the stuff back as it was really special to us."

A loving family – Arathi Nahar and her husband Jaswinder Singh with the two boys they adored, Sanjay Singh, 10, and 23-month-old Pawanveer