A PENSIONER was left horrified when a mistaken council officer told her that her garden mementos were being turfed out because of communal rules.

Sandra Pottinger, 64, was upset when workmen arrived on her street on Tuesday armed with hedge trimmers in order to cut back the shrubbery.

Mrs Pottinger, who acts as a full-time carer for her disabled husband Charles, confronted the officers, when she was shocked to be told that she is not allowed to have the trees she planted in memory of dead relatives in the garden area.

After being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when her husband, 87, fell seriously ill last year, she feared for the impact on her health if the council tampered with her beloved garden.

"This is not helping me," she said.

"If I am going to get upset and stressed I am going to be unwell again and that means I won't be able to look after my husband.

"The men I spoke to said we should have had a letter through the door but we have not had anything, across the road they had them but we have not had anything at all.

"I keep my garden together, that is my bit of relief."

But after the Chronicle intervened, the matter was later treated as misunderstanding, and Reading Borough Council has since made an apology.

It turned out that the Pottingers' garden was their personal garden and not a communal space, and they are allowed to plant what ever they like.

A spokesman for Reading Borough Council said: "A major tidy-up of gardens around blocks of flats in Severn Way has been carried out to complement recent improvements to the outside of the blocks and has been widely welcomed by residents.

"Unfortunately, members of the team working on one of the blocks on Tuesday [March 15] morning mistakenly believed the front gardens were communal rather than being tenant maintained.

"This resulted in one of the tenant’s being informed she would have to remove her plants – as personal items are not allowed in communal areas.

"A housing officer has since visited the tenant and apologised for the confusion and she has been reassured that nothing has to be removed from her garden."