THE Welsh Government is considering introducing a national policy on personalising graves after receiving a petition of more than 1,500 signatures following Torfaen Council removing tributes from children’s graves.

Torfaen Council caused an outcry this summer after it sent grave wind chimes and solar lights remembering dead children to landfill on health and safety grounds.

The Labour-run council said it had agreed to a “targeted clear up” of mementoes at its cemeteries in a bid to enforce its grave personalisation rules which dated back to 2011.

At a petitions committee meeting yesterday, South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittles said: “I can’t understand why Torfaen was so bullish in their attitude. This is clearly an extremely sensitive issue.

“It must have been very distressing for the individuals concerned. I think clear policies are needed. Whether you have an all-Wales policy on graves or not I don’t know. I think it’s for democratically elected local authority members who control the municipal cemeteries to perhaps decide that, as opposed to a government deciding that.

“But nevertheless I think what [the petition] suggests is a good idea. I do think Torfaen Council were very heavy handed.”

The petition, submitted by Cllr Elizabeth Haynes and Catherine Board, whose stillborn son Brandon’s grave was affected, has 1606 signatures.

After hearing of the petition, public services minister Leighton Andrews said: “I agree in principle to this request, however it is not clear from the correspondence received exactly what the petitioners require. Therefore while I do have some powers to regulate local authority burial grounds, it is not completely clear whether this falls within them.”

The petitioners responded to the committee that they wanted consistency with a “Cemetery Policy” written and adopted for all of Wales “to remove the inconsistencies and unfairness in the current multiple policies.”

Petitioners declared: “We the undersigned, call upon the Welsh Government to review the central policy with a view to bringing in new legislation/regulations so that there is consistency across local authority areas in Wales on the personalisation of graves, particularly the graves of babies and children.”

During the meeting no final decision was taken but the committee decided to pass on the comments to Leighton Andrews and also consult the cross party group for funerals and bereavement.