'I think the council may have been a little heavy-handed', admits Milton Keynes council leader

He was speaking out after the Citizen reported three cases where public-spirited residents had spent week tackling brambles and overgrown trees to improve council land outside their homes.

In each case the resident was clearing the land to make it more accessible to other people during their lockdown walks.

But in each case, they had been contacted by the council's landscaping department and told to stop. One man was even threatened with action for fly-tipping because he left the pile of dead wood neatly stacked up for the council to collect.

See the Citizen stories and photos here and here .

The Citizen asked the council press office for a comment. They have yet to reply, so we approached Labour council leader Pete Marland.

He said: “I think there may be a case here of some heavy handedness. Obviously MK Council can’t allow people to co-opt public land and a complaint was made by a neighbour in one of these cases, and that resident would be equally upset if the council ignored their issue. But in general, if people are being good citizens in their community and not causing damage there is no need to interfere.”