Anger as 45 headstones ripped out by council at Fair Oak cemetery

Council workers took the headstones off 45 graves deemed to be unsafe at Fair Oak Cemetery on Botley Road.

A notice left on the cemetery gate states: “All reasonable attempts are being made to contact grave owners.”

But sisters, Sandra Easton, 60, and Lynda Waite, 74, said they thought the cemetery had been vandalised when they visited their parents' graves earlier this month.

They said that a letter had been left on the gate and a post had been put on Facebook.

Sisters, Lynda Waite and Sandra Easton (Image: NQ)

Sandra said: “We go almost every month to visit our parents. We thought the graves had been vandalised.

“It's been so traumatic for us.

“The way the council have laid down the headstones next to the graves, they are now a trip hazard. They are more dangerous off the base than they were on, it’s ridiculous.

“We have had to pay more than £100 to get the stonemason to reattach the headstone to the base.

“We are residents of Hedge End and don’t use Facebook so how the council deem that a ‘reasonable attempt’, I just don’t know."

The was the notice left by the council at the cemetery (Image: NQ)

Lynda added: “When I spoke to the lady at the council that is overseeing the health and safety at the cemetery, she told me ‘when I started to wobble one, I just couldn’t stop’.

“There has been no respect for the families of those laid here.

“We feel like we have relived the grief of the days we laid them both to rest. The experience has brought us right back to the day they both died."

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The pair laid their mother, Eileen Cussen, to rest in 2003 and father, Douglas, in 2013.

They said they had never run into any problems at the cemetery before.

The sisters were shocked to find their parent's headstone toppled over (Image: Submitted)

A spokesperson for Fair Oak Parish Council said: “I can confirm that a memorial inspection, at which advice notice was given one month prior through onsite notices, took place on 31 October 2023.

“The inspection resulted in 45 memorial stones being deemed unsafe.

“In accordance with the Council’s policy, these were laid down to eliminate topple risk.

“Every reasonable attempt was and continues to be made to contact the owners affected to offer advice on the next steps.”