An elderly woman is devastated after flowers were stolen from the spot her husband was knocked down and killed a year ago.

Doreen Taylor, 77, spent four hours every day for two weeks collecting signatures around Faversham and gathered more than 1,200 names in a bid to improve the zebra crossing in Forbes Road.

However, the petition was ignored and days later the commemorative plants were taken.

Her husband Stanley, 76, was knocked down there in January 2014, and died three weeks later in hospital.

Some of the flowers Mrs Taylor placed on the crossing in memory of her husband were stolen last Sunday - one year on from the accident.

Mrs Taylor has found it hard to come to terms with losing the man she had spent nearly 60 years married to.

She was determined to have a pelican crossing set up to stop anyone else dying.

But her proposal was scuppered when Kent County Council said it would not be possible.

Mrs Taylor said: “I can’t bring back my husband, but I thought that maybe I could save somebody else and save others from the pain me and my family have had to endure.

“Other people have been hurt on that crossing.

“I know KCC is short of money but aren’t lives more important than money? Don’t lives matter? That has really hurt me.

“What you see on that crossing is unbelievable. Sometimes cars stop and sometimes they don’t.

“The amount of times I have walked on to that crossing and cars just do not see me.

“It’s only a matter of time until someone else is hurt.”

She says everyone she asked signed the petition and agreed with her that the crossing needed updating.

In a letter, KCC’s cabinet member for environment and transport Cllr David Brazier (Con) says that all new requests for crossing updates result in an analysis to “establish whether there is a consistent pattern of crashes that could be addressed by implementing changes”.

“It’s only a matter of time until someone else is hurt.” - Doreen Taylor

But he said there were “significant technical difficulties” with installing a pelican crossing in Forbes Road.

A month later, Mrs Taylor wrote back to Cllr Brazier to suggest speed bumps as an alternative to the pelican crossing.

He replied: “It’s a major route into Faversham town centre and the installation of traffic calming would slow down response times for the emergency services when they are attending calls.

“I sympathise with the concerns raised by all those that signed the petition and my thoughts are with you and your husband’s family and friends following this tragedy.

“I am afraid I cannot currently support further changes, and once again I am sorry that we are unable to agree to your suggestion.”

Mrs Taylor, who has lived in Forbes Road for nearly 30 years, says she will now give up with the council but wants to thank the people of Faversham for supporting her petition.

She added: “I never in a million years thought we would have such a great response to the petition.

“I really thought that the council would do something but I’ve done all I can.

“I miss Stan very much. You know when you’re older that one is going to go before the other, but I didn’t want him to go like that.

“It’s so cruel that someone would take his flowers and with the petition being turned down, it hasn’t been a good month.”