Udder chaos! Council workers herded cows into my lovely garden... and they ate the lot
WHEN she popped out to the shops, her front garden was a picture of spring colour.
But Ruth Jones returned an hour later to this scene of chaos and devastation.
A herd of cows had trampled or eaten her tulips and daffodils and were busy grazing on her shrubbery. To make it worse, the retired teacher discovered the 12 animals had deliberately been corralled into her front garden by council workmen. The cows had escaped from a field and were threatening to cause an accident on a busy main road in Darlington when they were spotted by roadsweepers and rounded up.
Seeing the gates to Mrs Jones’s garden were open, the workmen thought it would be a safe place for the herd while they summoned help. Mrs Jones, 65, said she dashed home when a neighbour rang to say there were cows in the garden.
‘There were policemen outside, some people from the council – and in the garden there were a dozen large cows,’ she said yesterday. ‘My garden has been ruined and all my plants have gone.’
Her husband Martyn, 67, a retired consultant engineer, was out and missed the incident on Monday morning. Darlington Borough Council agreed to make good the damage to the house and garden. Yesterday workers hosed down the driveway, reseeded the lawn and cleaned the windows where the cows had licked the panes. The couple have also been promised some bulbs.
Mrs Jones said that, while she had been annoyed, ‘the damage is nothing compared to what could have happened on the road’.
Council cabinet member Nick Wallis praised the workmen. ‘We think they all deserve a pat on the back,’ he said.