Julian Phillips, an 80-year-old resident of a Norwich flat complex, has been banned from gardening in the communal grounds and had his lawnmower confiscated after housing association Orbit objected to a foot-high picket fence he installed. Orbit said the fence, put up to stop vehicles driving over a lawn Mr Phillips had created, posed a "trip hazard" and did not meet required safety standards, prompting the row over an area he had transformed from a "mud field" into a garden.

Mr Phillips spent almost two months turning the grounds of the 31-flat development into a lawn and flower garden, laying fresh turf and planting flowers before adding the small fence. Orbit initially threatened to remove the fence within seven days but workers took three weeks to do so, and the association has since told all residents to stop gardening themselves, saying maintenance is handled by a contractor and the site's "odd job man". His lawnmower was returned after five days but he says he is now barred from storing it communally and must keep it in his car, while a promised replacement fence has yet to be installed.