A FAMILY are still waiting for the council to plant memorial trees to their late relatives ...

14 years after they bought them.

The Dilliway family claim they bought two memorial trees to be planted at the side of Canvey Way, as part of Millennium celebrations in 2000.

The trees were meant to commemorate the lives of Harry and Daisy Dilliway, who lived on the island for more than 50 years before their deaths in the Eighties and Nineties.

The family were given plot numbers 195 and 196, but say after a 14-year battle with Castle Point Council and Essex County Council, the trees have still not been planted.

Roxanne Dilliway, 24, who lives in Vange, is Harry and Daisy’s grandaughter.

She said: “My grandparents ashes were scattered, so my mum bought the trees so the family had a place to remember them.

“We received certificates to say they had been planted, but when we went to the plots there was nothing there except squares of concrete.

“All the other numbered plots seem to be there, its just my grandparents’ missing.”

The Dilliway family initially raised their complaint with Castle Point Council.

However the case was passed to Essex County Council in 2003 when responsibility for roads in the borough was transferred to the county council.

Miss Dilliway added: “The trees only cost about £20, but it is not about the money.

“It is the distress it has caused our family.

“We bought the trees to have a place to remember my grandparents.

“We have been pursuing this with the council for years and it still cannot give us answers. It is not right.”

A spokeswoman for Castle Point Council said it was unable to assist the Echo or the Dilliways because all highways records were passed to the county council when it took over responsibility in 2003.

However, the councils can’t agree.

An Essex highways spokesman said: “In 2005, highways records were transferred from Castle Point Council to Essex County Council.

“We can confirm that no record relating to the trees in question was among them.

“If the customer paid Castle Point for the trees to be planted, and it failed to do so, that would be a matter for that council.”