Council rules that crosses are 'too dangerous' for cemeteries

A simple cross has been used to mark graves for centuries but one council-run cemetery will no longer tolerate them – because of health and safety regulations. All wooden crosses have been removed from Ebdon Road Cemetery in Weston-super-Mare, leaving families distraught.

One of the graves affected is that of Rosemary Maggs', who died of cancer in May. Her daughter-in-law Liz Maggs, from Bristol, put a 26-inch-high wooden cross on her grave to mark her burial plot while the family waited for a headstone to be made.


Photo from SWNS.

But when Mrs Maggs, 43, returned to visit the grave with her husband Charles and daughters Zoe, 16, and Danielle, 14, just a few days later she found the cross had disappeared. And when she reported to cemetery staff that the cross had been stolen, they told her it had been removed because it did not meet council regulations. Mrs Maggs, a carer, was told if she wanted the cross back she had to go and look in an alleyway at the back of the cemetery where items removed from graves were stored.

North Somerset Council said the cross on Rosemary Maggs' grave was not suitable because all the other graves in the cemetery had flat memorial stones, not upright headstones. The authority said that because the cross pointed about 2ft up from the ground it was a health and safety risk.