'The council wanted me to clear my baby's grave'

A man has said he is relieved after a council changed its mind over rules governing what mourning families can place on their loved ones' graves.

Owen Bryant told BBC Radio Sussex he has put "little memorials, keepsakes and tributes" on the resting place of his stillborn son Beau for several years - just to show he is "loved and thought about".

But the 27-year-old said he was told by Burgess Hill Town Council to remove these items as they were no longer allowed.

The local authority has since apologised and said the memorials could remain.

"There are no words to describe it," Bryant said. "We are not able to do [so many] things for our son.

"I can't buy him his first car. I can't pay for his wedding. I can't do all these bits and bobs I should be able to do as a father.

"So that area, that's everything... I can give him.

"To think I was potentially going to lose all of that was gut-wrenching."

Bryant said he tended to the plot in the Burgess Hill Burial Ground every week and kept it perfectly as it was all they had of their son.

"It means the absolute world to us," he said.

Bryant added the council had told him he was only allowed a headstone and a pot of flowers.

The local authority told him they would clear the other items if he refused, he added.

"But I put my foot down - luckily that must have paid off," Bryant said.

He said the local authority had since apologised to him and his ex-partner.

The council said it concluded at a meeting on Thursday a small number of burial ground regulations could be open to "different interpretations".

"We always try to deal with matters with compassion," it added.

"In the case of the children's burial area, now we have more information, it will not be necessary to remove any items from the graves."

The local authority had said under its regulations that tributes of a "breakable nature or items that pose a safety issue to staff" were not permitted.

"Should the town council judge the level of tributes to be excessive, inappropriate or unacceptable... these would also be removed," it added.

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