A cemetery has apologised to a visitor after removing a cross from her father's grave.

Lesley Robins, 44, was one of dozens of relatives who accused staff at the Downs Crematorium in Bear Road, Brighton, of insensitivity for stripping graves of cherished items without warning last month.

Visitors were informed of the decision by a note left on gravestones addressed: "Dear grave owner."

The note told them certain items were not in keeping with the cemetery standards and were therefore removed.

Dignity Caring Funeral Services, the West Midlands-based company which owns the cemetery, has informed Mrs Robins that her father's cross should never have been touched as it had been in place for 13 years.

She has been given permission to resurrect the 1m mahogany cross but it had split into two pieces.

Mrs Robins, of Trafalgar Road, Portslade, said: "We found the cross 12ft from the grave with the A4 note. It's disgusting they can desecrate someone's grave."

She added: "They suggested we can install a replacement cross but that is insensitive.

"It would also be setting a precedent by giving someone special privileges. Other families who have suffered the same plight would be offended and someone might just dig the cross out of the ground out of sheer frustration."

Mrs Robins' father, Ron Grey, has been buried in the cemetery for 13 years. A brass plate on the cross reads: "Ron Grey. Loving husband, father and granddad. God bless."

Dignity took over the management of Downs in 1995. But a policy asking that wooden crosses are only used temporarily has been in place since the cemetery opened in 1885.

Dignity said a small number of families have had a wooden cross in place for a number of years and, out of courtesy, it should have consulted them before removing the memorials.

A spokeswoman said: "We are very sorry for any upset and distress we have caused Mrs Robins."

It is not the first time the Robins family has suffered at the hands of Dignity.

The company was responsible for organising the headstone for the grave of Mrs Robins' father-in-law, Leslie Robins, at All Saints' Church graveyard in Crawley Down.

It took more than a year to organise the headstone after the burial in September 2004.

When it finally arrived last November it was laid on the wrong grave. Dignity blamed the stonemason.