After years of gardening, a deaf pensioner says she feels she is being driven out of her allotment over rows about her hearing dog.

Milly Williams, of Weston Drive, Belmont, has been tending her plot for several years but now fears she may have it taken away after a complaint made about her dog.

The green-fingered 72-year-old, who was born deaf, says Harrow Council has sent her a number of letters complaining about her hearing dog Max, who is 12-years-old and has been with Milly and her husband Raymond for around eight years.

The council says the helpful hound has been spotted fouling other people’s plots and must be kept on a lead whenever he is at the allotments, or Mrs Williams will face eviction.

She said: “I rely on Max when I leave the house, he's my lifeline. He always wears his harness and his lead says ‘hearing dog’ on it but because it’s so small sometimes people don’t see it when he’s sat on his bed.

“He’s such a quiet dog and so well behaved, people queue up to take pictures of him. Because he’s a hearing dog, he stays close to my side all the time, and only moves or makes a noise when something approaches me.

“We have foxes so when I am doing the gardening I can’t tie him up because the fox will catch him, as he’s such a small dog. And it’s not as if I can keep hold of the lead when I’m doing my patch.

“He’d never run all over the place like the council is saying he does. It makes me really sad.”

Jill Warn, who has been friends with Milly for more than 30 years, has even written to David Cameron in a bid to resolve the problem.

She said: “I think this is a damned vendetta. They’re saying he roams wild on the allotments and ruins people’s patches and that’s an absolute lie. He sits there as good as gold whenever she’s there.

“She’s been treated grossly unfairly and she has done nothing wrong. That dog is her life.”

A Harrow Council spokesman said: “All dogs are welcome on the allotments as long as they are kept under control.  Mrs Williams has been spoken to a number of times over the past few years about the behaviour of her dog and at the beginning of the year she was given another warning. 

"She was informed that her dog could accompany her in the allotment as long as it was wearing its jacket and was kept under control.
 
“We haven’t received any further complaints from the other allotment holders recently, but if we do we will consider our options.”