{"id":1138573,"date":"2026-08-08T22:14:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1138573\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:14:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:14:24","slug":"the-stockport-allotment-war-with-accusations-of-harassment-intimidation-and-a-felled-plum-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1138573\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stockport allotment ‘war’ with accusations of harassment, intimidation and a felled plum tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

A row building for years on a small Stockport allotment has now become a \u2018war\u2019 after a granddad was kicked off the site.<\/p>\n

Rob McCurrie, 80, has had a plot at the allotment site on Newboult Road in Cheadle<\/a> since 2018 but claims he has been forced off the site due to a \u2018propaganda war\u2019 waged by those in charge. The granddad said he has faced libellous accusations and has been the ‘victim of accusations, harassment, and intimidation’ over several years.<\/p>\n

The allotment plot holder contacted the Manchester Evening News as he felt he had not been given a say and believes Stockport<\/a> Council has \u2018ignored everything\u2019 about his side of the story.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the National Allotment Society North West Branch said they would not comment as the matter has been dealt with and is now closed so no further action will be forthcoming. However the former construction worker said he was just \u2018asking questions people do not like\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mr McCurrie said: \u201cI have been on the site for years. For seven to eight years, everyone was friendly. We got on and we all liked each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou had one or two problems but it was dealt with a lot more simply. It was dealt with by talking to people. It was always the sort of thing that you did not need to get to this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always disputes but it\u2019s very rare that anybody is given a notice to quit.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Mr McCurrie, the row started after he raised concerns over a water supply on the allotment and whether this posed a legionella risk. He said this escalated when his plum tree was \u2018vandalised and butchered\u2019 last year followed by a formal process to kick him off site in December last year.<\/p>\n

A hearing was held that month over a single email, seen by the Manchester Evening News, Mr McCurrie sent earlier in 2025 to one allotment member which was accused of being defamatory. A constitution for the allotment site said one of three reasons a plot can be vacated is ‘any offence serious enough to warrant a notice to quit’.<\/p>\n

\"Stockport<\/p>\n

Stockport Council rejected an appeal by Mr McCurrie(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Mr McCurrie said he was unable to attend the hearing in December as this was within days of his wife of 63 years Lucia\u2019s funeral. He said this would have been too much at the time.<\/p>\n

He told the Manchester Evening News: \u201cThey have no mandate [to remove me]. They are building a case against me on gossip. It\u2019s propaganda.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoval from the site is serious and they haven\u2019t proved anything against me and they have propagated this propaganda war against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr McCurrie said: “I asked them constantly. All they did was send me that email. I asked them \u201cwhat is the problem in that email?\u201d and they never answered me. I asked them \u201care they accusing me of libel?” and they stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have created a cloud. That is all it has ever been.”<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI am not a bully. I am opinionated. I will have my say\u201d, adding: \u201cThey haven\u2019t got a thing they can say and the things they say, they have got no proof.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr McCurrie is being supported by his friend Roy Owen (right)(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Mr McCurrie is being supported by his friend Roy Owen who used to sit on the allotment committee. He told the Manchester Evening News the December hearing was a ‘kangaroo court’ as Mr McCurrie could not attend due to the funeral.<\/p>\n

Mr Owen, who still has a plot on the site, also claims the allotment committee recently asked to \u2018have a word\u2019 with him urging him to drop his own complaint about Mr McCurrie\u2019s treatment. He told the Manchester Evening News: \u201cIt\u2019s an injustice. They have not got a case to put to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they said is he had something to answer over a complaint. That email is not sufficient to send anybody off site.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhat he said was mild. That is all they have,\u201d adding: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with him. He is sound as a pound. He is abrupt but he is intelligent as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Newboult Road allotment which Mr McCurrie is not allowed to enter(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Emails shared with the Manchester Evening News suggest the water issue was investigated and the plum tree was cut down for health and safety reasons. A council review of Mr McCurrie\u2019s appeal against the initial decision sided with the allotment committee.<\/p>\n

This review, conducted by a council officer, accused Mr McCurrie of sending ‘aggressive and threatening communications’ and accused him of failing to engage with the process. Mr McCurrie maintains he was unable to attend the first hearing as he was grieving his late wife and the latter due to prior commitments.<\/p>\n

The local authority said the evidence \u2018demonstrates a sustained pattern of behaviour\u2019 and \u2018repeated unsubstantiated accusations against committee members\u2019. They said there had been \u2018no acceptance of findings and continued escalation\u2019 by Mr McCurrie and a further appeal was rejected unanimously.<\/p>\n

Mr McCurrie says there is no evidence to support the accusations against him and he has never been aggressive.<\/p>\n

The Manchester Evening News understands Stockport Council<\/a>\u2019s position on the issue remains unchanged and the issue has been considered through a now-finished formal process which has now concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A row building for years on a small Stockport allotment has now become a \u2018war\u2019 after a granddad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1138574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,17753,11565,393,4884,2465,285,1288,2622,16,15],"class_list":["post-1138573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-cheadle-and-cheadle-hulme","tag-cheadle-heath","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-politics","tag-stockport","tag-stockport-council","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117062198809310295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1138573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1138574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1138573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1138573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1138573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}