Postmistress, 63, who clipped yobs with rolled up parish council minutes faces police inquiry

But when she saw a group of youths kicking a ball near her treasured blooms Alma Harding decided on more immediate action.

The 63-year-old retired postmistress marched over and ordered them to go to playing fields nearby.

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She says she was met with a volley of foul-mouthed abuse, so clutching a roll of parish council minutes, she swiped at a member of the group.

Now Mrs Harding is facing a police inquiry into alleged assault.

She is to be interviewed by officers over accusations that she slapped a 13-year-old boy across the face with the minutes, leaving a red mark.

She says she brushed him across the cheek because she was disgusted with the bad language he and his two friends used.

Mrs Harding was on her way back from a parish meeting in Kenton, near Exeter, when she noticed the teenagers playing football near her carefully-nurtured hanging baskets and tubs of flowers.

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She has spent weeks caring for the flowers for the Britain in Bloom contest.

Mrs Harding insists she was trying to stop anti-social behaviour next to the village's war memorial in an area where the parish council is planning to put up a sign to stop football being played.

She said: "They were damaging the flowers. I told them to go to the nearby playing fields and asked them when they were going to grow up.

"They were really loud-mouthed and rude to me and I was close enough to get in with a few pieces of paper I was carrying. I have done nothing wrong. It would not have hurt the boy. It was only rolled up paper and I am a little old lady.

"They were damaging my property because I have loaned the hanging baskets. We don't get any funding for flowers, only donations to help and it costs a fortune."

The boy's mother complained to police that her son has been slapped across the face.

"My child had been assaulted," she said. "It is not acceptable for a stranger to go up to a child and hit them.

"If he had hit her, he would have been in the cells. I swear on his life he didn't say anything rude to her and I would ground him forever if it were the case.

"He kicks the ball around in the street but he has never done any damage."

A police spokesman said: "We have spoken to the suspect and she is due to have a formal interview in the next couple of weeks."