Grieving relatives had to get down on their hands and knees to scrub hardened grass cuttings from the graves of loved ones at a Kinross cemetery.
The distressing sight was witnessed by local man David Gill as he visited his partner’s grave and he is now petitioning Perth and Kinross Council to clean up its act.
Mr Gill said cuttings were regularly left strewn across graves at the North cemetery, which contains several Commonwealth War graves, after the grass is cut.
He met council leader Murray Lyle to raise his concerns last week.
So far, his petition has gathered more than 100 names, with signatories calling on the council to clear the grass away.
The authority has blamed the latest incident on a “staff error” but Mr Gill said he had been told it was a regular occurrence.
He said: “My partner passed away about five months ago and I had some of her ashes put in the cemetery.
“I was up there recently and it was absolutely saturated in grass cuttings, which were difficult to clean. And there were loads of monuments that were like that.
“There were women there with basins and down on their hands and knees scrubbing. I had a chat with them and they said it was an on-going thing but they couldn’t get anywhere with the council.
“One woman told me she came up every six weeks and was there for a couple of hours scrubbing and cleaning.”
He said the railings at the cemetery were also dilapidated and some of the gravestones appeared to have be in a poor state of repair.
“Generally speaking it looks like the cemetery is a very, very low priority,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Perth and Kinross Council apologised for last month’s incident with the cuttings.
“After being made aware of an error during grass cutting, our staff returned to remove the glass clippings.
“We apologise for any distress that this may have caused to any lair owner or visitor to the cemetery.”
