A WOMAN who accidentally posted a gold bracelet into a paper recycling bank has thanked council staff who helped her get it back.

Jennifer Gornall, of East View Terrace, Barnoldswick, mistakenly put an envelope containing the jewellery into a paper bank near the Co-op as she was recycling other papers.

She contacted Pendle Council after realising her mistake and was joined at the paper bank the following day by contractors and two council workers to help her search through the waste. They found the bracelet after a short search.

Mrs Gornall, 49, who works in the canteen at Silent Night in Barnoldswick, said: "I'd put my son's girlfriend's bracelet in an envelope for it to be repaired, but by mistake, I picked it up as I was taking some empty envelopes to the paper bank and then dropped them all off without thinking any further.

"I was really upset when I realised what had happened.

"We were really lucky. Just as we started, I spotted some papers that I had put in the bank and then I found the bracelet."

"I'm really grateful to everyone who helped out on the day. It was such a relief to find the bracelet, especially so early in the search."

Carole Taylor, waste management co-ordinator said: "This is such an easy mistake to make, and we felt compelled to help Mrs Gornall anyway we could.

"The problem is that paper banks are emptied into a large lorry which already has paper in it. So we wanted to try to find the bracelet before it ended up in the lorry."

"The idea was to release a small amount of paper at a time from the paper bank, so that it could be searched and collected for recycling by our employees."