After reading about Lewes District Council's actions in Seaford cemetery, I decided to check on my late husband's headstone.

I was very disconcerted to find it flat on the ground, with a label saying it was unsafe.

While appreciating the council's duty to public safety, the issue must have been in the pipeline for longer than it would have taken for public notification of such action via the Press.

The council has taken draconian action in a very insensitive manner, ensuring people with loved ones buried in this cemetery suffer maximum distress.

The other factor in this sorry saga that does not seem to have been mentioned is why so many fairly recent headstones have been deemed unsafe.

My guess is that in spite of people being informed at the time that the headstones would be laid on proper foundations, they were not.

We, the bereaved, are totally in the hands of the experts and do not expect to tell them how to do their job. Looking at my husband's tipped-over headstone, the foundations do not appear to be very substantial. The stone sits on a base of cement at each end, a bit like a boat with no keel.

The council surely has a responsibility to ensure proper standards of construction by stonemasons. Are there any regulatory standards that apply to cemeteries, as to buildings?

More help and information should have been given to our views and feelings. I hope the council will help relatives with the cost of repairs with a special restoration package. Or does it wish us to leave the headstones flat on the ground ready to trip the unwary trespasser? Perhaps the council should chop down all the trees, too, just in case they fall on anyone.

-Mrs Valerie Skues, Lower Drive, Seaford