A grieving mum whose daughter died after getting stuck in the birth canal during delivery has won a year-long battle with the council to have a white picket fence around the grave.
Hollie Bourne arrived at the baby cemetery to bury her newborn daughter and discovered her child’s grave was one of the few without a fence.
After seeing the decorated plots at Hawkinge Cemetery in Folkestone, Kent, next to the concrete slabs she was supposed to use, the 23-year-old had a fence erected for her daughter.
But in her grief shortly after the death, she had signed a form saying she wouldn't put up a fence.
For nearly a year after the funeral of Ava Guzman-Bourne last August, Miss Bourne fought Folkestone and Hythe District Council for permission to keep the fence.
Her long-running battle reached a conclusion on Monday, when she got a call from the council informing her that she could keep the fence.
Ava had been alive and stuck in the birth canal for 16 minutes and died while doctors were trying to deliver her. Following her birth and tragic death she was diagnosed with Spina Bifida, a birth defect stopping the spine's development.
Speaking about her ordeal over the past year, the 23-year-old mother from Folkestone said: “There are two other babies next to Ava, but you wouldn’t know that because there’s no plaque, there’s just grass.
“And that’s what they wanted Ava to look like, just grass.
"Before we put up the fence up, when we visited Ava's grave with my four-year-old daughter, we had to draw a line down the middle of the graves so she wouldn't stand on the other babies.
"That wasn’t happening, I would not have people standing on her, doing their business on her.
“It’s just not right, she’s a baby, it’s her cot at the end of the day. She’s not at home with us like she should be.
“She didn’t even get to cry, she didn’t even get to open her eyes. I think the least she deserves is a fence.”
The family had originally planned for Ava to be laid to rest in the old baby cemetery where there were many fences, but a last-minute change meant she was one of the first infants in a new area that had none.
Miss Bourne added: “We were days into grieving Ava and a man walked into the funeral directors and said just to let you know, Ava’s going to be in a new baby plot and you will have to sign this regulation saying you won’t put a fence up.
“We were only days into our grief and we just signed it, we wanted to get the process moving, we weren’t thinking straight.
“Come her funeral we’re up at the new baby garden, and the amount of fences in the old baby garden is unbelievable.
“We were literally surrounded by these beautiful fences.”
People in the old baby garden signed the same documents, she said, but the council conceded to their complaints to let them erect a fence, and not Miss Bourne's.
She said: "We felt like we were being targeted because they've been told they're not allowed fences and they've still got them. Why aren't we allowed?"
Miss Bourne was so distressed by the council refusing to permit the fence she told them she would move Ava to the old part of the cemetery.
She said: “We did some investigating and found out there was still space in the old baby garden, where they could have put Ava.
"But they told us we had to be in the new garden, we had no choice over where she would be and we had no choice but to sign this regulation.
“So when they took Ava’s fence the first time, we got on the phone to the Folkestone and Hythe District Council and said, look, last resort we’ll move her to the old baby garden and she can keep her fence.
“We said we don’t want to move her, we don’t want to cause her more distress than she’s already had, but last resort we will move her to the old baby garden and put up a fence.
“But they said oh, no, even if you move to the old baby garden you still won’t be allowed her fence.”
Miss Bourne said the council banned the fences to let the gardeners cut the grass.
However, while the other plots were mown her family had to cut Ava’s grass with kitchen scissors because it was left to grow so long.
Miss Bourne said: “They sent emails saying you’ve signed the regulation and it’s problematic for the gardeners to cut the grass, but when they took Ava’s fence the first time they refused to cut her grass.
“Imagine saying a baby’s garden is problematic? I would much rather have that problem than not waking up with my baby girl every day. You’ve got to balance out these problems, and it wasn’t a problem for them.
“There’s been fences there for years and years and years before Ava and they’ve never had a problem.”
"There were mower lines going around Ava’s garden to avoid it, her grass always used to be so much longer than everyone else’s. We were up there every week without fail with kitchen scissors cutting her grass."
Folkestone and Hythe District Council said the U-turn was allowed once the authority realised the "operational concerns raised can be overcome".
A spokesman said: “The council recognises the highly emotive and sensitive nature the issue of fencing and decoration of children’s graves brings for families.
“Having reconsidered the matter, the current operational concerns raised can be overcome and we will be allowing the low fence to remain in place.
“We will carry out a review of the regulations regarding the children’s plots and consider how we allow this moving forward, taking into consideration the needs and wishes of the families and the council’s cemetery maintenance tasks and obligations.”
Describing her victory, Miss Bourne said: "I want the world to know.
"Not only has Ava got her fence now, but all of the future babies who will sadly follow will be allowed to keep their fences."
