The family of a baby who died at just three months are furious the grass around his grave had become so overgrown the headstone was barely visible.

Little Justin Davies suffered cot death ten years ago. When his grandfather, Ray Brown, and his wife, Alison, visited Brighton, Hove and Preston Cemetery in Hartington Road, Brighton, last Saturday, two days before Justin's tenth birthday, they had to use shears to cut the grass around the headstone.

Mr Brown, who lives in Ousedale Close, Lewes, said: "When we were cutting some of the grass around Justin's grave there was an old lady at her husband's grave and she was crying about the condition of the place. Even some of the full-sized headstones were half covered in grass it was so long."

Justin's mother, Michelle Lawson, who lives in Horton Road, Hollingdean, with her three children, Samantha, Daniel and Lewis, said: "When I went to the graveyard on Justin's birthday there were people there with shears.

"We have kept Justin's grave really nice so it is disgusting the company that runs the cemetery have left the place in this state. They ought to look after it better."

Another woman, Margaret Hamilton of Rodmell Avenue, Saltdean, said she found the grass overgrown and bins overflowing with rubbish when she visited her mother's grave.

She said: "I visit the cemetery quite often and I actually drove past my mother's grave as the grass was so high you could not see the headstones.

"I have noticed the deterioration in the way it is being kept over the last year but this had to be seen to be believed."

Mrs Hamilton also went to the Peacehaven area of the cemetery where her mother-in-law's ashes were scattered and although the grass had been cut she found it was brown and dry.

She said: "It is an utter disgrace that this resting place has been left to deteriorate so badly.

"It is an insult to the memory of the people that have been laid to rest and to their families, so many of them try to look after their loved ones' graves."

Nigel Emberson, the manager of the graveyard, which is run by Service Corporation International, said: "We can't cut all the grass at once. We cut certain areas on certain days.

"Unfortunately the grass has grown very quickly and all the other cemeteries are in the same situation.

"We are trying as best we can and I would like to send my apologies to this particular family."

The grass by Justin's grave has now been trimmed but the cuttings left strewn all over the graves.