Relatives told to clear up graves
Families are being told to remove objects from the graves of loved ones at a church in Cannock as items are encroaching onto other plots.
The polite plea has been made by the Rev Dr Glynne Watkin at St John's Church in Heath Hayes.
He has urged families to clean up their burial plots in the garden of remembrance at the church as they are in 'clear breach of the regulations.' Some are twice the size they should be, he says.
Rev Watkin says some items will have to be removed but he wants the co-operation of families and friends now so it does not come to that.
He says the overspilling plots mean that the capacity of the garden of remembrance for future burials has been significantly reduced.
He also raised concerns about some of the objects, such as pebble stones and plastic borders, which he says make the use of mowers and strimmers 'extremely dangerous'.
Rev Watkin said: "Work is about to begin in the garden of remembrance in order to ensure that all memorial stones comply with the local burial regulations.
"We are concerned that some of the memorial stones are in clear breach of the regulations.
"In some cases, the memorials have expanded to more than twice their agreed size as friends and relatives have added all kinds of materials and objects to them – including pebble stones and plastic borders.
"The result of this is that the capacity of the garden for future burials has been significantly reduced.
"The addition of such materials makes it impossible for the garden to be maintained as the use of strimmers and mowers becomes extremely dangerous in the presence of pebble stones and other objects."
He added: "We are putting out an appeal. We do not want to disturb people's items so we would welcome the co-operation of friends and relatives in this matter.
"Burial regulations are clearly displayed at the garden and we would appreciate the removal from site of all unauthorised objects as soon as possible.
"Our team will begin such work too, and will label and store all removed objects pending their collection by friends and relatives. Our aim in doing this work is to ensure that our garden of remembrance remains a place of quiet dignity and good order."
If his team do have to remove items, they will be stored and labelled and made available for collection by family members.
