Dignity workers 'desecrated grave' says angry family

Outraged Glyn Griffiths could not believe his eyes when he and his partner Tracey Moreton arrived to pay their respects at his mother and father’s grave at Rawmarsh’s Greasbrough Lane cemetery. 

Dirt had been piled high on the grave by contractors preparing for a burial at the cemetery.

Glyn’s horror was compounded when a supervisor for cemetery managers Dignity told him: “That’s what we always do.”

The 51-year-old, of Hawthorn Avenue, Rawmarsh, said: “When you go to see your loved ones in a cemetery and you’re confronted with mounds of earth it’s very upsetting.

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“If it had been an anniversary and we had floral tributes where would we have put them? It would all have been a waste.

“There was no need because there’s so much room between the plots.

“But they never even considered it or how we would feel.

“It’s disrespectful to relatives and those interred there, whether it is my parents or anyone else’s.”

But after complaining, the couple were left fuming at the attitude of staff at sub-contractors Glendale working for the private firm, Dignity, which runs Rotherham’s cemeteries and crematorium.

“They didn’t seem to want to know,” said Tracey (46).

“I rang and left a message and someone was supposed to ring back but they didn’t and next time I rang they said they had no recollection of my call.

“So I had to go through it all again.

“While we were out we got a message saying to ring a number, but it was a dead line.

We tried again the next morning and it was still dead.

“We phoned again and they said the person who had left the message was on holiday and said someone would ring back but they didn’t.

“Eventually a supervisor rang us and he said that’s what they always do when they dig a grave. I knew that hadn’t happened before, but he insisted it had.

“I told him it was disgusting. I’m still waiting for him to ring back.

“Photographs and floral pots had been placed behind the headstone so we put them back, but it still looked a mess.

“It’s upsetting when you go up to a grave to pay your respects and find it damaged.”

The plot has been tidied up and fresh flowers placed on the grave, but the couple have been left shaken by their experience.

A Dignity spokesman later apologised for the clanger.

A spokesman said: “Dignity sets and achieves high standards of care. However, these standards clearly slipped when preparing a grave for a burial near the Griffiths family grave, resulting in a complaint from the family. 

“Dignity apologises for any distress this has caused to the Griffiths family. 

“It is never our intention to provide anything short of the best possible level of service to all visitors to the cemetery.”