UK Grandmother ordered to remove garden

Although this isnt a gardening tip as such, it is interesting to read that we are now told to disregard our gardens in such a hopeless manner by those we trust the most. Our council leaders and those who we pay our taxes to dont seem to quite grasp the importance of gardens or gardening in general.

In one of the most bizarre policies in modern history a UK grandmother has been ordered to clear some of her shrubbery in order to make way for three council waste bins.

The article from the Mail Online reports that Mrs St John was given the waste bins as part of a council edict enforcing all residents to now house them. While many of us already possess one or two of these wheelie bins most of us also have space to hide them. Not so for Mrs St John who has a frontage of only a few metres.

When Mrs St John complained to Harlow Council's recycling officer he suggested that she make way for the bins by removing some of her shrubs and installing paving to house them on!

Now, I don't mean to be alarmist but if every household in the UK were forced to do this wouldn't it mean that they could lose nearly 5% of their gardens overnight? I'm not sure where Harlow Council think they are going with this preposterous policy but it can't be good.

Interestingly, the Mail Online received more than 260 comments on this article and have since closed their comments. While some respondents were as bemused as I am, the odd detractor fielded comments such as;

There is plenty of space for bins in that messy, overgrown plot. They could be stored safely for her and easily hidden by some shrubs. Isn't that what normal people do? Why is she making such a fuss?
and;

Hmmm, not quite the shocker as it would seem when you read on. She doesn't have to pave her garden, and she has alternatives to the 'eyesore' of the wheelie bins in her front garden- she can wheel them through her house for a start. Reading what the council said they actually seem pretty reasonable.
Hmmm....wheeling rubbish bins through the house??? I can see why this guy thought the council was being quite reasonable!

This appears to be one of those issues where the "forest" gets missed for the "trees". On one hand, the Harlow council should be applauded for their efforts in assisting a recycling program but when the only way to achieve that is to remove gardens, one has to ask where the logic is in this?

Continue to support your local garden centres and get out there and prove the importance of gardening to the UK economy and UK culture.