Grieving families have slammed a local council as "disrespectful" after a rewilding project caused grass and flowers to become so overgrown that graves could not be found.
The rewilding policy was launched in 2019 after Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council declared a climate emergency.
However, the grass in the region's graveyards is now 4ft tall in places and covers headstones, residents have said.
Officials say that allowing grass to grow in public spaces contributes to combating climate change and enhances wildlife conditions by promoting biodiversity and creating habitats for pollinators.
The rewilding policy was launched in 2019 after Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council declared a climate emergency (stock image)
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One resident, Nichola Roberts said she was left distraught when she could not locate her grandparents and great-grandparents who are buried at a cemetery in Christchurch.
The 62-year-old said she also spotted an elderly widow almost fall over after becoming confused searching for her late husband’s grave.
Despite complaints and demands from relatives for officials to cut the grass, BCP council said that the long grass "adds to the tranquillity" of the cemeteries.
"I was in tears. There’s a lovely little lady who’s desperately looking for her husband’s grave and she couldn’t find it and then she nearly fell," Roberts told the Bournemouth Echo.
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"A cemetery should be a place where your family graves are accessible and it’s not. It’s disrespectful to them."
Similarly, Kay Leach - who travelled 70 miles from Bristol - was unable to cut through grass to reach her parents’ and grandparents’ graves in Hamworthy.
She said: "I think it’s wholly disrespectful. I couldn’t stand by the grave and I had to get my husband to walk all over it and lay the flowers that we bought because I physically couldn’t get there."
BCP Council signed up to the green initiative "let it grow", meaning grass in public areas is cut less often.
BCP Council signed up to the green initiative 'let it grow', meaning grass in public areas is cut less often (stock image)
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A spokesman for BCP council said: "To promote biodiversity and improve conditions for wildlife, some areas of grass throughout the BCP area are not cut during the summer, including some areas within cemeteries and churchyards.
"The wildlife this attracts adds to the tranquillity of the place.
"Some residents favour short tidy grass, especially around their loved one’s resting place, and we have adopted a balance between rewilding the older parts of our cemeteries, where the gravestones have been in place for more than 100 years and visitors are less likely to attend.
"Our focus across all of our cemeteries and churchyards is on the needs of the bereaved."
