A DISTRESSED Spa resident claims she feels "victimised" when visiting family graves at a town church.

Clare Bowen, aged 29 of Woodmans Close, regularly visits St Nicholas Church graveyard in Ombersley Road to pay respects to her husband, Anthoney's grandparents and uncle. But she is disgusted at the way they are treated.

She feels she and her husband are not treated with the same respect as other visitors because of their age. And the family are unable to pay respect to their relatives in the way that they wish.

Appalled

Clare recently wrote to the Advertiser, appalled the church won the best kept churchyard award. But other reader's negative response to her letter prompted her to speak out.

She told the Advertiser she recently planted two mini rose bushes on the graves and planted a vase into the ground. But when she returned, the vase was cracked and one of the rose bushes had been mowed over.

"My father came along with me one day to find out why this had happened and when they talked to him they answered him in a civilised manner. Yet they made us feel they had no respect for the young."

She claims that she approached the vicar about erecting a fence around the grave but he had declined.

She said: "I would like to point out that St Nicholas churchyard is only tidy when the judging is going on.

"I find the place very unwelcoming and it's the only churchyard I know where you cannot pay your respects to your family how you want," Clare added.

Rev Andrew White said: "We cannot comment on individual cases but we have to comply with diocese regulations.

"We are very sorry when people feel upset but we do all we can to ensure we are sensitive to people's grave space.

"None of our volunteers would ever mow over someone's grave maliciously. When damage is done it is very often vandals.We do our best with our volunteers and the majority are very happy with the churchyard."