Merton Council has apologised to an 82-year-old woman who was given a fixed penalty notice for feeding ducks and fish at her local pond.
Faye Borg was in Morden Hall Park in south-west London on Thursday morning when she was approached by two Merton Council wardens who issued her with a £150 fixed penalty notice for littering.
The penalty notice reads that a "female was seen throwing biscuits in the river".
Ms Borg does not wish to speak about her ordeal, but her neighbours Darren Dickenson and Maria Bentley-Dingwall have told the BBC that the wardens "followed Faye to outside her house and demanded she paid the fine on the spot".
'Very concerned'
Mr Dickenson said his elderly neighbour came to his house in tears after the warden was "very aggressive and rude", while Ms Bentley-Dingwall described the ordeal as "terrifying" for Ms Borg.
The leader of the London Borough of Merton, Ross Garrod, said: “I was very concerned to hear about this incident and would like to offer my apologies to the resident.
"A senior council officer has visited her with a bouquet of flowers.
I hope the bill for the flowers was billed back to Kingdom as the borough residents should not be paying.
“We have cancelled the fixed penalty notice and are taking this matter up with our contractor to ensure that it does not happen again.”
The River Wandle flows through Morden Hall Park
The wardens worked for Kingdom, a company that provides environmental enforcement services to local authorities.
Kingdom should use their resources in a better manner and patrol the parade of shops beside in the Post Office in Grand Drive SW20 - they would make a fortune in fines with the number of people dropping litter, alcohol cans etc, particularly in 5he afternoons outside William Hill bookmakers.
I often wonder if the wardens are on a commission as they are always overzealous in getting individuals to fine, I get the point in capturing the litter louts or others causing antisocial behaviour but …….
Morden Hall Park is a National Trust property, meaning council wardens have no jurisdiction and cannot issue fixed penalty notices.
The National Trust said it "will be in touch with the council to understand what happened and how we can avoid something like this going forward".
Last year, Harrow Council outlined plans to fine people £100 for feeding the birds in Pinner Memorial Park but watered down its proposals after a backlash from the local community.
