The death of a “special” cat led to a council to change its policy on identifying pets killed in road accidents.

Julie Mans and her family had only had their rescue cat Diesel since January when he was killed by a car on August 2.

The grey tom cat went missing while Ms Mans, of Headstone Lane, Harrow, was on holiday.

She said that when she returned home her eldest daughter Emily had been looking through bins to see if she could find the cat.

It wasn’t until a neighbour found the cat on the road and posted in a local Facebook group that Ms Mans realised what had happened.

She called Diesel the “most special cat”.

She said: “We have four cats, but Diesel followed us around and was always there. We miss him so much.

“He was part of the family.”

Ms Mans said: “A neighbour saw him being mown down by a driver who did nothing.

“We couldn’t believe it, it was heart-breaking, and we felt guilty for not being there. If we had been there we might have seen him.”

Ms Mans repeatedly tried to contact Harrow council to get her cat back, so she could give him a home burial, so she and her children could lay him to rest.

But she heard nothing back.

Ms Mans is now backing a campaign by charity Cats Matter calling on the Government to make it obligatory for councils to scan cats hit by cars for microchips so they can be returned to their owners and given a proper burial.

Ms Manu added: “I know councils are strapped for cash but there is no proper system in place.

“I can cope with the fact we lost him but not that we never got his body back.”

Local authorities are currently only obliged to collect the bodies of the cats and send them to landfill sites, not return them to their owners.

The charity also wants the Government to make it mandatory for drivers who hit a cat to report the incident to the police.

After being moved by the Mans’ story Harrow council has announced it will begin training its staff to scan domestic animals for microchips if they are found dead.

A spokesperson for Harrow Council said: “We agree that pets matter and that councils can do more to help reunite pets with their owners.

“Following this sad incident, we are going to train our staff and make equipment available to ensure any domestic pets that we find have their microchips scanned, as a matter of routine.”