A GARDENER'S world is no bed of roses when a shed has been erected in the wrong place.

Allotment keeper David Mee is embroiled in a vegetable patch row after he took over a plot run by Saltburn, Marske and New Marske Parish Council.

After spending weeks clearing rubbish from the allotment, he finally got round to erecting a shed, and this was when trouble started to blossom into his brush with authority.

He has been warned he has until the end of the month to move the shed.

Mr Mee said: "This is just petty bureaucracy gone mad, if you ask me. If this is all they have to worry about, when the allotment was derelict we took it over.

"It was in a terrible state when I started working on it. There was rubbish everywhere, including a fridge, and it took weeks of trips to the tip to clear the allotment.

"The garden still isn't completely cleared, but I decided, with the help of my brother-in-law, to erect a shed on a spot where we had been told a previous one had stood.

"This was when the trouble started. Apparently, the parish council has arbitrary building plans for all the plots saying that all the sheds should be in a line, but my shed was not within those guidelines.

"They are demanding that I move that shed, despite pleas from my local MP, Ashok Kumar, and they have told me that I have until July 31 to relocate it.

"It just seems that they won't listen to what I have got say, and bureaucracy seems to be winning the day."

The clerk of Saltburn, Marske and New Marske Parish Council, Sue Preston, was unavailable last night to clarify the council's position.