My dad’s grave was toppled over by council workers for health and safety reasons… I’m flabbergasted

A HEARTBROKEN daughter is furious at council officials for deliberately removing her dad’s gravestone. 

Lynn Lewis found Les’ headstone lying on its side with tape on it when she went to visit on his birthday. 

She said it was upsetting and unacceptable, adding that her family was not warned of the council’s plan.

Weymouth Town Council officials in Dorset confirmed they removed 21 gravestones for “health and safety” reasons.

Lynn said: "It's all upsetting and I am just flabbergasted by it, surely they could communicate this was happening or let us know beforehand?

"I just feel it is unacceptable not to contact us prior to removal or even to put a note up is just upsetting.

"My dad passed away in January 2019 so it is still fresh in our mind - it is just awful."

Les is buried alongside his father Ernest, who passed away in 1986, with both men commemorated on the gravestone.

Weymouth Town Council said it had a duty to carry out memorial inspections at least every five years and recent inspections found 21 graves with dangerous headstones.

They said of those 21, 12 of the owners were deceased, six no longer live at the addresses the council has on record and three were contacted via letter, including Mr Lewis' family.

A spokesman said: "We would like to apologise to the family for any distress this incident has caused.

"We have a responsibility to maintain our cemeteries in the town in the best way possible for all visitors, and as part of this work we do carry out regular safety checks.

"When staff carried out inspections at Weymouth Cemetery, this memorial was found to be very loose and action was taken to make it safe.

It's all upsetting and I am just flabbergasted by it

Lynn Lewis

"The headstone was lowered onto the grave to ensure that it could not topple over and hurt any visitors to the cemetery.

"If we have had to lay down any headstones, we then inform people about this. Apologies again for any distress this has caused."

We previously told how a pensioner demanded a grave be moved after claiming someone was buried over her grandparents.

Diana Cooper, 77, said she wants to be able to lay flowers and speak to Wilfred and Ethel Cooper like she has done for the past 57 years.

But Berwick St John's Church bizarrely said it had no record of her grandparents' grave ever being there.