A disabled woman from Didcot has won her battle to stop a road barrier being built that would block access to her home.

Linda Tierney, 58, has parked outside her home at Foxhall Manor Park since she moved there with her husband eight years ago.

But South Oxfordshire District Council had planned to put a barrier outside her house to stop flytippers getting on to a strip of open land.

Mrs Tierney said the barrier would stop her using her space - forcing her to walk much further and aggravate her back, neck and leg problems.

But on Friday, the day the barrier was due to be erected, the council finally decided to shelve the idea and has promised to look at alternative measures.

Mrs Tierney said: "If I walk far I get pins and needles in my legs so I need my car outside my home.

"I need to drive to work because there are no buses."

Mrs Tierney said the barrier on the track beside her house would not allow her to turn the car around and reversing out would be difficult and dangerous.

"The barrier would have seriously affected me whatever way you look at it," she said.

"Bringing in shopping, going to work and visiting my mother - it would all be difficult. If I have to keep walking backwards and forwards it would definitely affect my health."

Mrs Tierney said the council, which runs the Foxhall Manor Park mobile home site, did not consult her about the barrier.

She added: "The council has been no help. They didn't ever discuss it with us and get our point of view."

Mrs Tierney, a receptionist at Didcot Leisure Centre, was alerted to the plan by a neighbour and immediately contacted her local councillor Sara Davidson, who has campaigned on her behalf.

Mrs Davidson said it was a victory for common sense but added the council should have consulted Mrs Tierney earlier and its own policy was to 'go beyond the statutory requirement on equality issues'.

She said: "They consulted the fire brigade and the contractors but not Mr and Mrs Tierney, the only ones it was going to affect. Somebody missed a stage."

A council spokesman said: "We did have plans to install a barrier to help with the problem of flytipping."

But she said the council had now listened to what Mrs Tierney had to say.

She added: "We have now put the idea on hold and we are looking at alternative ways of tackling the problem without using a barrier."