A GWENT woman slammed the decision to cordon off her relatives' graves, reopening a bitter row over rules forcing the council to topple unsafe memorials.

Torfaen council has confirmed 60 per cent of memorial stones in the most recent section of Cwmbran cemetery are unsafe. It says it hasn't got the money to repair them.

And it has warned the same percentage of gravestones is expected to test as unsafe in Panteg and Blaenavon, but it could not provide exact numbers of the stones affected.

Debra Lake told the Argus she was "appalled" at the state of the cemetery, where both her grandparents and great- grandparents are buried.

Under health and safety rules all gravestones deemed to be unsafe must laid on the ground or cordoned off and she is worried that will happen to her grandparents' stone.

"I was in a state of shock and disbelief when I saw the cemetery on a recent visit," said the 41-year-old mother of two, from Rockfield Road, Monmouth.

"It is in a disgraceful state - it looks like vandals have been on the rampage.

"This is health and safety gone mad."

In a series of reports 18 months ago the Argus revealed how cemeteries across Gwent had been affected by new health and safety regulations. The head stones must be tested with a machine to make sure they can withstand 35 kilograms of pressure.

A Torfaen council spokeswoman said: "Any memorial is the full responsibility of the grave owner.

"The safety testing is done by trained inspectors who understand and respect the sensitivity of the situation. When a gravestone fails, we leave a notice on it asking the owner to get it repaired, and where possible we write to them."

"We would like to contact all grave owners, but unfortunately we do not have up-to-date addresses."