Bereaved families face graves charges

The proposal is to allay concerns that lawnmowers and workmen are trampling over plots at Streetly Cemetery. Ground staff have already stopped using ride-on lawnmowers following a petition of more than 2,500 names. Some relatives had resorted to placing plants or edging around plots, but council bosses said it caused maintenance difficulties.

Now, new plans have been unveiled to bring in wooden edgings to protect the graves at a cost of £75 to relatives.

But campaigners claim the proposals for the Little Hardwick Road site would only be a "short term" solution. The proposals are be discussed at a meeting of the full Walsall Council on Monday.

Petition organiser Mehboob Matloob, of the Walsall Muslim Organisation said the group wanted to hold talks with the council.

Mr Matloob, of Nutmeg Grove, Chuckery, whose brother Mohammed Ramzan Matloob and grandmother Lala Bibi are buried at the cemetery, said: "The report prepared for the meeting does not meet the requests of the petitioners and Walsall Muslim Organisation feels it does not go far enough.

"It has proposed wooden edging at a cost and such edging is only a short-term solution as it will quickly decay and erode away."

Currently, rules and regulations prohibit "kerbstone or any other form of monument or memorial" on lawn plots, and only wreaths and flowers should be displayed at time of interment.

In a report council executive director Jamie Morris said: "The full cost of the wooden edgings installed by the council would be charged to the families who request for it to be done and therefore should not be a pressure on the service budget."