A COUPLE are considering moving their son’s ashes from his memorial at a Bournemouth cemetery after they found their tribute to him in a bag with other items that had been removed.

Jean and Tony Glass visited the ground dedicated to their son, Richard, in the Glades at Bournemouth North Cemetery on Wednesday.

They were aware of signs advising that staff would be moving items from the area. Jean said she had already cleared everything other than the vase, which she says she had been told would be fine where it was.

Richard’s ashes remain on the ground around his dedicated plaque three years after his death.

Speaking to the Daily Echo yesterday, which would have been Richard’s 48th birthday, Jean said she may now move his ashes after finding the vase in a rubbish bag.

“I’m not sure I want to come up here anymore,” she said.

“I used to always come here and put new flowers on. I would sit on the bench and have a chat with him.

“Now all I have got to look at is a plaque. Have they got no feelings for people who are mourning their loved ones, especially when it’s a child?

“I’m moving to Colchester soon and I think I’m going to move him. I don’t just feel like I want him here now.”

Richard died in his sleep in 2015. Unknown to his family, he had the heart disease cardiomyopathy.

Jean said her son was someone who could not be replaced and described him as someone who was “happy go lucky”.

She requested a spot in the Glades that had sunlight for Richard’s memorial and said it was beautiful with the range of flowers and tributes that lined the area.

Jean said she could not believe the woodland had been stripped bare after visiting earlier this week.

“It was a total shock. I was broken-hearted and I started to cry, I couldn’t help it,” she said.

“We went to the main office and they said we should wait a couple of days.

“I had to go through five bags of stuff to find it. I was just trying to find the vase that we had specially made. There was all sorts of different items in the bags.

“I spoke to the maintenance team two weeks ago about the vase and they said it was fine.

“When we came up on Wednesday everything had gone. It was so pretty in there before, but it is ruined now. The signs were up, but I checked about leaving the one vase.”

Linda Barker, Bournemouth Borough Council’s head of bereavement services, said they had received an inquiry on Wednesday regarding the removed items and apologised if any distress was caused.

She said: “We had placed notices around the woodland glades 10 weeks ago advising that memorials left in this area needed to be removed so that maintenance could be carried out.

“We have ensured that any items not removed by families have been stored by our grounds staff. These items can be collected by families if they wish to do so.

“We’ve been working hard to make Bournemouth’s cemeteries and crematorium not only peaceful places to commemorate or remember a loved one, but pleasant for families to visit and a valuable space for wildlife.”