A grandmother says she is sick of fighting her way through out-of-control brambles and 5ft tall stinging nettles every time she wants to go to the shops.

Barbara Gouin from Peartree Walk in Newington, near Sittingbourne, is outraged at the state of a short-cut near her home.

The 79-year-old, who has lived in the area since 1969, said: "I just want it cut down. I think it's terrible. Nothing has been done since 2019.

"Villagers have tried to do it but they get told not to because it's council property apparently. The state of it definitely means we're not going to win village of the year."

The alleyway, which is situated at the back of Peartree Walk allows residents of the area to get to Bull Lane without having to traipse through Orchard Drive and Playstool Road.

The retired farm-hand continued: "It is a main route for us in the area, every day I walk through there at 8am, it's how I get to the Post Office, get little bits of shopping, that sort of thing.

"Mums with pushchairs struggle to get through too.

"The little kiddies are always reaching out and it's really going to hurt when they're stung by the nettles.

"The nettles are taller than me, because it is so overgrown a lot of the people around here just though rubbish into the overgrowth as well, it just makes me really angry."

Barbara, a nan-of-six, has also raised concerns about blackberry bushes that have overgrown onto the path further along Bull Lane.

She said: "They'd grown right over the path, you had to walk out onto the road to avoid them - again not ideal for mums with kids and pushchairs.

"In the end it took people who live nearby to cut them back because they'd just attack you.

"When you walked past it previously it hung out right over the path. It would just prick you, grab you."

Barbara claims that she can't get a straight answer for who is meant to maintain the area.

She said: "If it is not Kent County Council (KCC) then it is Swale Borough Council and if it's not them then it is a contractor.

"We've offered to sort these issues ourselves but someone always comes along and says 'oh you can't do that, it is the council's issue'.

"So why don't they do something?"

KCC said the path was not a recorded public right of way or highway and therefore is not maintained by them.

Barbara finished: "I've got shears indoors, I feel like going up there and cutting down all the stinging nettles myself but we get told off when we do so.

"They're constantly mowing the grass and trimming the hedges round here so why can't they just nip down the alleyway too.

"No one has done anything for three years - it's like a monster mash.

"If they won't maintain it why don't they just rip it all out, drench the area in weed killer and concrete over it?

"I know a lot of people moan about it like I do but I just decided to do something about it."

Swale Borough Council has acknowledged the situation.

A spokesman said: "We don’t own or maintain the alleyway between Bull Lane and Pear Tree Walk in Newington, and unfortunately, the land isn’t registered, so we don’t know who owns it.

“In this instance, we can book in our Active Citizen Together (ACT) project team from Standford Hill open prison, who do work experience ahead of their release, by helping us with small projects around the borough.

“We’ll book the team in to clear this alleyway in the next few weeks.”