Pensioner who tidied up allotment branded 'vigilante' by council

Pamela Dunn, a public-spirited pensioner who tidied up a rubbish-strewn allotment, was branded a vigilante by her local council in Dorset and told to stop. Mrs Dunn, 66, thought she was doing a good turn as she cleared unsightly junk from the plot of land.

But as she spent days removing the rubbish, including a mass of weeds, an upturned shed and a broken washing line, she received a letter from the town hall. Despite the allotment being left to rot for more than two years, officials claimed her attempts to improve it were the equivalent of vigilante action. She was told to stop immediately.

Grandmother Mrs Dunn, a leading member for the local Women's Institute, has reluctantly downed tools and criticised the council. Mrs Dunn has kept her own allotment in Sherborne in pristine condition for 25 years and could no longer bear to look at the untidy neighbouring plot.

She said: "The site looked so bad after two years of nothing and it was starting to encroach onto my allotment so I decided to do something about it. I cleared and dug half of the plot but had to stop because I couldn't lift the heavy stuff like two dumped fridges. I wrote to the council advising them what I had done. I asked them could they please either get the person who they have rented it to to clear the rest of the plot or could they themselves clear it.

"They wrote back saying I had taken vigilante action and I must desist immediately. I find that very offensive. We all help people at the allotment and for them to turn round and say I am a vigilante indicates he doesn't live in the real world. There's just no way I am a vigilante and I took great umbridge at that."

Mrs Dunn, a retired gardener, was so appalled by the matter she attended the next meeting of Sherborne Town Council and gave members a piece of her mind. She said: "I told them I don't suppose you have ever helped anyone in your life, but my generation was brought up to help others - I don't think that went down very well. I am a very low profile person but if something riles me that is wrong I will say something about it." Since her outburst, Roy Musgrove, the council's finance officer who wrote the original letter, has apologised to her.