I visited my parents grave at Mabe Church last week and have to say that the overgrown state of the churchyard was an absolute disgrace with the grass almost three feet high in places. Respect for the dead? I don’t think so. Maybe a little more of the church’s vast wealth should be directed toward the maintenance and upkeep of rural churches.

Anyway, that’s not my main gripe. My parents grave is in the small plot adjacent to the main entrance and, not for the first time, I noticed that the silk flower arrangement was missing. Then I spied a notice stating that artificial flowers were not permitted nor were glass ceramic holders. And indeed, on closer inspection, there were no artificial flowers being displayed, only fresh flowers although not all were in granite or metal holders as stipulated so I can only surmise that all the artificial flowers had been thrown away by someone, probably the groundsman. This new directive would appear to be on the grounds of “Health and Safety” in that it implies glass or ceramic holders are more likely to shatter with a greater likelihood of injury but, to my mind, you have to remove all the flower arrangements, both fresh and artificial, and their holders to cut the grass either with a strimmer or lawn mower. So the logic escapes me, not to mention the £60 my family have spent on silk flowers so far this year.

I accept that in an ideal world fresh flowers would, of course, be the first choice but this is not really practical year-round and, surely, a colourful little bunch of artificial flowers on a grave is preferable to no flowers at all.

Anyway, I would be very grateful if someone could explain the logic of this directive to me as it would appear to only apply to the little plot outside the main entrance as most of the flower arrangements throughout the rest of the churchyard are artificial and have not been thrown away.

Glen Jenkin,

Address supplied.