THE rector of a church that has warned relatives to tidy up graves or have them tidied up for them has defended the move.

June Pilcher and Brenda Burston were incensed after staff at St Matthias, in Malvern Link, left public notices on their family graves telling them to remove unauthorised edging stones.

Canon Graham Lyall said the request was necessary but that each public notice should have been accompanied by a personal letter from him.

"We've asked people on a voluntary basis to remove them (the edgings) and most have," he explained. "Where we know the address we posted or delivered a letter by hand to people. I'm not looking for a fight with anybody but I have to inform them.

"There should have been another letter as well as the legal notice, it explained what we were going to do.

"I would very much regret it if all they had was the legal notice."

Another grave owner, Bill Keane, this week called the move short-sighted.

"It was just the public notice. It seems like Canon Lyall is burying his head in the sand," said Mr Keane, whose mother-in-law and father-in-law are buried in a grave lined with black edging stones.

While visiting the grave earlier this year, Mr Keane, from Belmont Road, says he was approached by a volunteer from the church who assured him that his in-laws' grave was not a problem.

"He said he wanted plastic flowers removed but that my edgings were fine. Now I find a letter," said Mr Keane.

"They should write to relatives in a proper dignified manner. Tidying up is alright but to do the sort of thing they're doing is not."