NEW rules governing the sizes of gravestones at a cemetery could leave families without the space to honour their loved ones, fears a town councillor.

Keith Francis is worried regulations passed by Ledbury Town Council will be poorly received by members of the public when it comes to remembering the dead.

He said: “There is a standard height and width for the gravestones at the moment in the current cemetery and the proposal was that in the new bit of the cemetery stones should be 2ft 6in high instead of 4ft. I’m not sure there’s enough space on that memorial stone for people to put all they want to remember their loves ones. I would still like to see the current regulations be the same and not reduced in the future.”

Ledbury Cemetery is almost completely full and the new rules will be implemented on an adjoining piece of land once it has been consecrated for burial.

Although the rules reduce the maximum height of gravestones, they actually increase the base width in order to ensure stability.

Councillor Tony Bradford, who chairs the town council’s environment and leisure committee, said the decision has been taken after extensive research including consulting a local stonemason.

He said: “I shared Coun Francis’s concern until I was shown the 2ft 6in ones. You can get a lot of writing on one. Even I was surprised.”

Coun Francis said the size of the old gravestones meant they were susceptible to damage when work was being carried out at the cemetery as well and there was an increased risk of them toppling over. He said the cemetery working party and environment and leisure committee were also looking for a more uniform look for the expanded site.