THE Liberal Democrats have apologised after a campaign poster appeared in the garden of a 95-year-old woman without her permission.

Penelope Alden complained to the Oxfordshire Lib Dem group that two men had placed an election board in her mother’s garden in Squitchey Lane, North Oxford, without her consent.

She said her mother Esme was ‘astonished and upset’ by the incident.

The party later said it was ‘very sorry’ and that it was not done out of maliciousness or opportunism.

Mrs Alden said: “My mother looked out of her front window to see two men putting up a large black and orange Liberal Democrat poster board at the front of her garden overlooking the road.

“She was surprised to put it mildly as she has never had any contact with the Liberal Democrat party.

“She went outside to ask the men what they were doing and they simply said that they had knocked at her front door, got no reply, assumed she was out so thought it OK to go ahead and erect a board in her front garden.

“She was astonished and upset.”

A Liberal Democrats campaign volunteer apologised on behalf of the Oxfordshire group and said that campaigners probably got the wrong address.

Their response said: “We are very sorry that a garden poster was put up at your mother’s house without permission – it certainly won’t have been out of any maliciousness or opportunism on the part of our poster team.

“It is likely one of your mother’s neighbours gave us a request for a garden poster and they simply mistook the address.”