Families angry at plans to flatten more than 600 cemetery headstones are to get a chance to have their say.

Senior officers from Lewes District Council face a grilling at a meeting in Seaford on Saturday night.

The council has come under increasing pressure after contractors toppled memorials without first informing the families of the dead.

Headstones in Seaford and Lewes cemeteries were flattened after failing so-called topple tests designed to assess safety.

The council said it was forced to act after a boy died under a falling monument in North Yorkshire three years ago.

Officers concede no one had been killed or injured in local cemeteries.

Sally Woodgate, one of the organisers of the meeting, said: "We are not anti-safety but if this was so urgent why didn't they do it three years ago?"

Mrs Woodgate, 53, of Seafield Close, Seaford, said cemeteries had been left looking like vandals had struck.

Her son, Stuart, 20, died after being knocked off his motorbike in 1994.

His memorial was among those pushed over by workmen.

Mrs Woodgate added: "It hurts like hell going to the graveyard, which we do every week and to find Stuart's headstone toppled was the last straw."

Lib Dem Lewes MP Norman Baker urged the district council to "right its wrong" after being contacted by about 50 upset families.

John Crawford, chief executive of the council, said yesterday: "We apologise for any distress that has been caused because of the results of these tests.

"We are currently working to find a solution that will resolve the issues people have raised with us."

The council believes hundreds of other memorials may be in need of urgent safety work.

The meeting will take place in Chyngton Methodist Church, Millberg Road, Seaford, on Saturday, at 7pm.

For more information, call Sally Woodgate on 01323 893789.