Gravestone rules could be abolished
Gravestone photographs could also be allowed as councillors consider doing away with rules which have been in force for decades.
It follows a protest earlier this year from town councillor Pruw Boswell who condemned the cemetery in Plymouth Road as 'bland and boring'.
The changes in the rules governing the town council-owned graveyard have been approved by its policy committee and now have to go before the whole council for a final decision.
A pleased Mrs Boswell said: "It does give people more freedom of choice. When you look at the present modern graveyard it's all in serried rows. All the gravestones are similar in height and size. There is no personality. It doesn't tell us anything about the people buried there and does not tell a future generation about our generation except that we were hidebound by regulations."
The changes will mean the end of rules which dictated that all memorials in the graveyard had to be approved by the council, with a submitted drawing showing all the dimensions and inscriptions.
Also out is a rule forbidding 'dressing of graves or memorials' and the ban on scarves, ribbons, soft toys, ornaments or tinsel, with warnings that they would be removed by the council.
Mrs Boswell said: "Everything has been fairly strictly controlled. If you buried a child you were not allowed to put a teddy bear on their grave.
"Under the changes if you want to dress a grave you will be able to, but if it causes a mess the council will be able to remove it."
She thought it 'sad' that people did not included photographs as part of a graveside memorial.
"Photographs are nice because they help to remember what a person looked like. European graveyards are quite different from ours.
"When my protest appeared in the papers I had several letters from people saying good for you. The British seem to be quite reserved about death."
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