Widower told to remove flowers

5:34pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

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A WIDOWER who has lovingly tended his wife's grave since she died 16 months ago, was shocked to be told that he had remove all the flowers he had planted for her.

Leonard Walker was heartbroken to be told to remove all his spring blooms because of a council regulation.

Witney Town Council, which ordered them removed by last Monday, blamed health and safety rules, and said having plain grass would enable easier maintenance of its Windrush Cemetery at Oxford Hill, Witney.

But Mr Walker, 66, of Newland, Witney, who has removed the plants, said the council had destroyed all the loving care he had put into looking after the site since his wife Margaret died last year, aged 60.

He said: "She died last year, and I have been coming here every day to remember her and tend the grave. This makes me really sad and angry."

"I'd put bulbs in and some angels with lights. But they told me it all had to come out, just to put it to grass.

"I only live a few hundred yards away and it's not as if the grave wasn't well looked after. I can't understand why they wanted to destroy all I've done."

The town council owns and is responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery, as well as the town's older Tower Hill Cemetery.

Janine Howells, the council's amenities manager, said: "Mr Walker was told about the rules.

"We have been very compassionate with him. You can't change the regulations for one individual. They are general now to most graveyards up and down the country."

"It makes the grass easier to maintain and we have maximum heights for headstones and a ban on kerbsets the length of the grave for health and safety reasons.

"We generally require people to come into line nine months after burial, we think that is long enough."