A FAMILY has hit out at the "terrible" and "upsetting" state of Radcliffe Cemetery.

June Hayes and her daughter, Janette Hayes, were left disgusted by the overgrown condition they found the cemetery in when they visited family graves last week.

They have been complaining about a lack of maintenance work at the Cemetery Road site for years and council officials have said that staff shortages have been responsible for the problems, which they hope to rectify in the coming weeks.

June's parents, Benjamin and Ellen Greenhalgh, and husband, Geoffrey Hayes, are all buried at the cemetery, as well as her parents-in-law - whose graves she was unable to reach because the grass around them was so high.

Mrs Hayes, of Saville Road, said was disgusted by the situation.

She said: "We have been complaining about this for three years now and it always ends up like this again.

"It's a disgrace and it's very upsetting.

"We go down there every week and sometimes I can't even get to my in-laws' graves because it is so overgrown.

"It's very upsetting to think that your loved ones are buried there.

"I might as well have put them in a field."

Janette, aged 48, of Browns Road, added that the state of the cemetery was 'disrespectful.'

She said: "It is a mess. For the last three years it has been a disgrace.

"There is just one man there to look after it and it can be very upsetting for people going there.

"The level of disrespect this shows to Radcliffe, but more importantly to the dead, is breathtaking.

"It's such a shame that the crematorium next to it is kept perfectly, but the cemetery is being left in a pretty terrible state."

A council spokesman said: “Our grounds maintenance had fallen behind due to staff shortages.

"However, this has been resolved and the council is now working to get the maintenance back on track over the next two to three weeks.”