A WOMAN who has returned to Darwen 50 years after emigrating to Australia has written a letter to the council complaining at the state of the town.

Carol Wood left Darwen in 1964 when she was just 14 years old because her dad became one of the ‘ten pound poms’ under whcih the Australian government allowed Brits to migrate for just £10 in a bid to increase the population to match the country’s booming industries.

At the time Carol had been living in Anchor Estate and was a pupil at Avondale School, then a high school for girls in the town.

Now 64 and married to Rodney Bray, Carol has returned to the town she grew up in and said she was disappointed with the state of its built-up areas.

She said before jetting off back to Australia yesterday she had sent a four-page letter to Blackburn with Darwen Council about her concerns.

Carol, who has four children and six grandchildren, said: “I have been to all the places we lived in and I knew and had a lot of reminiscing.

“The town needs a lot of tidying up and I have written a letter to the council which I will post before we head home.”

Carol, who has been staying with her uncle, Harold Smith, a former golf professional of Lynwood Close, added: “Darwen is the best place in the world because it has got everything around it.

“There’s all the countryside and the parks and Sunnyhurst Wood, and India Mill and Darwen Tower.

“My husband has been for a walk in the woods every day and everyone says ‘hiya’.

“The people in Darwen are so lovely.

“We have had a fabulous time, I just think the council needs to get its act together and clean up.

“The town itself has really grown and spread out.

“We lived at Redearth Road for a while and our old house isn’t there any more because they built the school.”