It's potty! Gran ordered to shift 'hazard' plants

A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER has branded an order to remove a pretty display of plant pots from outside her home as “red tape gone mad”.

- By Joe Crossley

Mary Murphy, 81, created an arrangement of six pots beneath a tree on a small patch of communal ground outside her flat last July to hide an unsightly view of bins.

The cheery patch of hydrangeas and Japanese pieris shrubs has drawn lots of compliments, she said.

But the housing association has written to her, telling her she is in breach of her tenancy agreement and ordering her to relocate the pots to keep the communal area clear.

If she does not move them by this Thursday it will “dispose of or sell” them, it threatened. Mrs Murphy, a grandmother of five, has lived in the block of flats at Tannery Court in Sittingbourne, Kent, for four years, and has been a resident of the town for more than 30.