Mourners claim a church's decision to ban artificial flowers from being left on graves is causing them distress. Teesside Live reports that relatives have hit out at St Andrew's Church, Darlington, for enforcing rules preventing fake blooms being used in its churchyard.
They complain that tokens and floral tributes left for loved ones have been removed over the past couple of years after they broke "regulations designed to protect churchyards". Debbie Burt, whose parents' ashes are interned in the Haughton-le-Skerne cemetery, claims that last year a number of items including artificial flowers and a sentimental card written by her grandmother to her late mother were taken from their graves and thrown out.
The 52-year-old isn't the first person to be affected by the church's rules, described by those impacted as "crazy". Since 2021 a number of families have been distressed to discover items removed from their loved ones' graves, including Joanne Sommers who had items taken from her late husband's memorial.
