Deputy mayor badly burned in garden

OLDHAM’s deputy mayor has returned to his civic duties following a garden accident which left him with horrific burns.

Former council leader David Jones fell on to a chimenea — a traditional Mexican outdoor heater — in the garden of his Chadderton home and suffered burns to his back from his waist to his shoulders.

The long-serving councillor, who will step down in 2011, has had to attend Royal Oldham Hospital daily to have the wound dressed since the accident a fortnight ago.

But he was well enough to perform his first mayoral visit this week to the Bangladeshi Community Association.

Doctors were concerned that Councillor Jones was in no pain — in case nerve endings had been destroyed. But he says that feeling is slowly returning to his back, although he has been warned that he will have to avoid exposing it to sunshine for two years.

He said: “I stood up from a garden chair and just toppled backwards. I’m afraid it doesn’t say much for the state of the flagstones in my garden.

“I didn’t even realise that it was serious until the following day when my wife spotted my back and told me to go to the doctor. He took one look and sent me straight to the hospital.

“With the weather we’ve been having, it’s a terrible time to have to cover up — but I have very brown legs and face at the moment.”

The one-time education chairman has decided not to stand for re-election after 28 years on the council.

He said: “I have done all the jobs I wanted to since arriving from Wiltshire all those years ago. I am very proud to have served the town I love.”