Controversial grave rules suspended for 12 months

Lesley Webb, Lindsey Collins and Nicola Smith met with Broxtowe Borough Council personnel on Thursday

A Nottinghamshire council has suspended a controversial rule that could have led to tributes being removed from graves for 12 months.

Broxtowe Borough Council's cabinet approved new restrictions in July that would restrict remembrance items on cemetery plots.

Chilwell Cemetery was the first of five borough-owned sites to receive a deadline of 23 January for when “unofficial surrounds” - including gravel, vases and glass - would be removed from graves.

Leader of the authority Milan Radulovic told families that any action would now be suspended for 12 months to allow a full and proper consultation to take place.

Milan Radulovic says the borough is "rapidly running out of burial space" but is looking to extend its graveyards

Families who had created a personal garden patch on graves feared their items would be removed under the new rules, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council said restrictions were based on maintenance difficulties and health and safety reasons and rules have always been in place.

Radulovic met with families at Bramcote Crematorium on 24 October, where he promised a “common sense” approach over the rules.

On Thursday, during a private meeting between the council and families, Radulovic ordered the year-long suspension.

The arrangement will involve the creation of a working group between families and council officers to come up with a “sensibly-worded solution and policy", the LDRS said.

'Haven't finished yet'

Nicola Smith’s son Aaron died in 2018 aged 21, and Lindsey Collins’s 19-year-old son Josh died in 2021.

Both sons are buried in the cemetery, and both mums attended Thursday's meeting.

Ms Smith said: “When I buried him [in 2018], I asked what I was allowed on that grave and I was told that I could have anything if I kept within the measurements and I maintained it myself.

“I have stuck and adhered to that rule.”

Radulovic said the working group will allow a “negotiation” that “meets the needs for people to grieve in their own way”.

Ms Collins said it was good to have been given the 12-month suspension but there were still "a lot of uncertainties which will obviously still cause us considerable stress".

Lesley Webb, who wants to bury the ashes of her late husband Peter in Beeston Cemetery, said: “We’ve spoken on behalf of everybody, we’ve had a nice meeting, everybody’s been polite - we haven’t finished yet.”