A DISABLED widow is celebrating after a potholed pavement that was keeping her imprisoned inside her own home has been repaired.

Joyce Miller, aged 74, said she was delighted Worcestershire County Council had finally carried out the work enabling her to get out and about unassisted to see her friends and go to play bingo.

The Worcester News revealed on Friday that Mrs Miller – who relies on a walking frame – had started taking legal action against the council because she said its initial reluctance to carry out the work endangered her safety and well-being and infringed her human rights.

She said she had found it increasingly hard to leave her home in East Close, Wychbold, near Droitwich, without calling a taxi because of the number of bumps and cracks in the pavement caused by last winter’s big freeze.

The county council did not deem the pavement in a bad enough state to repair it but decided to carry out the work once it realised the full extent of Mrs Miller’s circumstances.

Mrs Miller, who has lived in East Close since 1982, lost her husband Stuart, a former BBC radio engineer and parish councillor, to cancer in March.

“I’ve got a little bottle of champagne for for when the work has finished and it has all dried out,” she said. “I’m going to go out there and christen it but I might have a sip myself first.”

Mrs Miller, a retired office manager and press officer for the BBC, said she had been “overwhelmed” with the reaction of people around the world following the story in the Worcester News.

“My son, who lives in New Zealand, has been able to see it on the internet and so has my sister in Spain and they think it’s absolutely brilliant,” said Mrs Miller.

“My son put it on his Facebook page saying he was proud of his mum for what she had done.

“There were messages back saying ‘Well done Mrs Miller’ and also ones from America saying ‘Go girl go’ and ‘good on you’.”

Jon Fraser, Worcestershire County Council’s customer and community manager, said: “Once our highways team had been informed of Mrs Miller’s particular difficulties the decision was taken to overlay the section of pavement in front of her property which would, under normal circumstances, not have required resurfacing.

“We are pleased, given the exceptional nature of this case, to have been able to offer Mrs Miller improved access to her property.”