A grieving mother has been left heartbroken after the decorative fencing she installed around her baby's grave was removed by Crawley Borough Council
Summer Houghton lost baby Rayne after she had to have a medical abortion due to illness – Rayne was delivered on July 25th.
After her baby was buried at Snell Hatch Cemetery in West Green on August 15, Summer put up a pink fence and some flowers around the grave a week later.
But when Summer returned on September 10, she said the council had removed the fence without telling her.
A council spokesman said: “We recognize that placing personal items or memorabilia around the edge of a gravesite is a delicate matter.”
“However, it is necessary to implement certain rules and standards to ensure that our cemeteries are presented in a consistent and orderly manner suitable for public use.
“As part of these requirements, fencing of properties within our cemeteries is not permitted. This is set out in the rules and regulations of our gravesites and we remove anything we find.”
“We are sorry if this was not fully understood following discussions with the family.”
Summer's mother Jane told us: “Nothing was explained to her and there are graves with fences down there and we feel the same should apply to others.
“If you pay for your baby's resting place, like my daughter did, you should be allowed to keep it nice.
“I have been trying to get help from the Crawley MP getting back to me but we need help to change the law on this matter.
“It’s heartbreaking that we can’t make the baby’s gravesite pretty.”