CALDICOT town council chiefs have denied claims by an angry resident that safety checks on gravestones have left his parents' graves more dangerous than ever.

The council surrounded 60 graves in Dewstow Road Cemetery last Novem-ber to carry out safety checks prompting an angry reaction from residents. All the headstones were replaced by December 19 last year.

But 41-year-old Robert James, who owns the Bush House restaurant in Usk, claims his parents' graves, which he believes were secure before the checks began, are now a potential danger.

Mr James said: "They were also covered in muck, absolutely filthy - I had to wash them down. They looked like they'd been dragged through a cow yard.

"Before all this my parents' gravestones were fine, perfectly secure. In the weather we're currently having I'd say they were very dangerous."

Caldicot town clerk Gail Macintyre said: "The council said they would be put back up on December 19 and they were.

"There was a small issue where around four or five graves had not had resin placed around the bottom of them because of the bad weather we have had in recent weeks.

"That work has been completed over the weekend.

"At no time were the gravestones ever unsafe."