GRIEVING families are tonight expected to be told to stop placing trinkets, toys and even artificial flowers on graves at a Swindon cemetery.

Councillors are likely to argue in favour of keeping the current regulations at Whitworth Road Cemetery, which ban any form of memorials being placed in addition to the formal grave markers.

Staff at Swindon Council say other objects which often include teddies, balloons, vases, wind chimes and family photographs get in the way and make maintaining the graves far more difficult and expensive.

They have put three options to tonight's transport, environment and neighbourhood services commission meeting.

The one most likely to be chosen is to confirm the current rules, write to those contravening them and, if the items are not removed voluntarily, instruct cemetery staff to dispose of them.

The alternatives are to relax or remove the restrictions, but that would mean extra costs on the council budget of £25,000, to employ an extra member of staff and buy smaller grass-cutting machinery.

One parent who has fought the restrictions in the past claims the council is being insensitive and over-officious.

Julie Porter, from Grange Park whose stillborn daughter, Kyra Jane, is buried at the cemetery insists she will continue to flout the regulations.

She spoke to the Adver this summer of her anguish when toys placed at the graveside were left scattered by council gardeners. She now plans to attend tonight's meeting to raise her concerns during public question time.

"I think what the council is suggesting is disgusting and shows a complete lack of respect. It makes an already upsetting situation even more distressing.

"I appreciate they have got a job to do and need to cut the grass, but there has to be a more sensitive way of going about it. They can enforce what they like but they are not going to stop me decorating my daughter's grave."

The chairman of the commission, Councillor Stan Pajak (LibDem, Eastcott), said it was a difficult and emotive issue, but that the regulations need to be enforced.

He said: "The workers at the cemetery have had a lot of flack for moving memorials and toys, but they have just been following the regulations.

"If you are a grieving parent, you may have no feeling for regulations and one can understand that, but we need to look at the wider view and not allow the graveyard to get into a mess."

Coun Ian Dobie, the lead member for Swindon Services the department in charge of cemeteries said: "I wouldn't like to see our cemeteries turn into advertisements for the plastics industry.

"We need a bit of taste and decorum instilled in a sensitive manner. At the moment, it can look cluttered and tacky, when it should be a place of respect. Treading the line between the two is quite a difficult task."