Mandy Newman, 71, to fight Fakenham Town Council demands to flatten graves sites at Creake Road Cemetery

A woman whose parents are buried at a town’s cemetery said she is willing to ‘fight’ after the council called for one of the graves to be flattened.

Mandy Newman, 71, received a letter from Fakenham Town Council (FTC) on Friday, August 30 saying that her father’s site at Creake Road Cemetery, which has been there since 1997, is “not level” and would need to be sorted within six weeks.

After speaking with others, it was brought to Mandy’s attention that some graves had already been flattened by the groundsmen, allegedly without the families’ knowledge, and had been left in worse states than before, making her worried about the final resting places of both of her parents.

“There was one lady who told me that they had flattened her father’s grave, and when they went to lay flowers with her 90-year-old mother, they thought they had dug it up and put someone else in there - it was that bad,” she said.

However, this is not the first time Mandy has had issues with the town council over the cemetery.

Back in April, she and many others were told they had to remove items from the grave sites, something which she described at the time as ‘appalling’.

“We do not want our parents to be disturbed any more,” she added.

“They’re supposed to be resting in peace and they’re not - the council is flattening them.”

Mandy believes that the graves should be left to settle naturally and feels uncomfortable with the idea of the soil around her parents being dug up and moved around.

“First, we can’t put items on it to make it look nicer, now it’s all got to be dug up,” she said.

“We should have the right to choose what we do to the sites.”

Despite contacting the town council, Mandy fears that the groundsmen will touch the graves regardless as it states on the letter ‘If this has not been completed by the aforementioned date, our groundsmen will level and seed/turf the plot.’

On its website, FTC has a 12-page document setting out 86 rules and regulations for its cemeteries, with rule 26, which was amended on July 31 this year, stating: “All graves must be kept flat and level with adjoining ground…”

“The burial authority will make reasonable efforts to contact the exclusive right of burial owner/s prior to carrying out this work, giving them the option to level the grave themselves, if they wish.

“If no response is forthcoming or the grave remains mounded, the burial authority will complete the work.”

However, Mandy said she had never heard of this rule in the 27 years her father has been buried and added that if rules change, people must be notified.

“I can’t let them touch my parents’ graves, it’s like digging them up.

“I will fight them on it because I just don’t see the need for it.”

A spokesperson for FTC said: “The levelling of graves is a normal cemetery practice, graves can take some time to settle.

“Following engagement with the public earlier this year, it was suggested that sometimes family or friends would like to carry out this task as an act of caring for their loved ones.

“Where they are unable to or do not want to do that themselves, our grounds staff will do it for them.

“To date, the council has only levelled one grave this year, this was re-turfed and after inspection can confirm that the grass is growing well and the grave is in good condition.”