THE outgoing York Cemetery warden today defended his record in the job, and said cemetery rules and regulations were necessary to ensure "proper uniformity and effective preservation."

Hugh Goudge, who has been cemetery warden for three-and-a-half years, said he had had enough of the 90-mile round trip from his home near Wakefield every day, and is due to leave at the end of October.

Cemeteries across York have recently come in for criticism from bereaved relatives, angry over rules about what can be included on graves.

Criticisms of York Cemetery came from Denise Munday, who was unhappy with the ban on edging stones on the grave of her 17-year-old son, Christopher Loft, and Nancy Marshall, who said she was "furious" with a similar restriction on her brother Davy Jamieson's grave.

Some relatives with loved ones in York Cemetery have also criticised Mr Goudge directly, saying his manner could be abrasive.

But Mr Goudge described the criticisms as "unfounded," saying he regularly writes to bereaved relatives to discuss problems with graves.

He said: "It is often how you are approached. If someone approaches in an aggressive manner then it puts your back up, but we have bent over backwards to help people."

He said that on enforcing cemetery rules, the Cemetery Road burial ground was one of the more flexible in the city.

He said: "Fulford Cemetery, for example, sticks very closely to the rules. Here we are pretty easygoing. We allow plastic flowers on the graves; in the modern section we allow photos on stones - we allow terms such as 'Mummy' or 'Pops'.

"Graves and burials are emotive issues, and we are sensitive to that, but we are working a juggling act between the memorials and wildlife.

"A recent example is a family who have been putting slug pellets on their child's grave, which is not allowed.

"Quite rightly they don't want slugs on the grave, but we have a large hedgehog population and they have been eating the dead slugs, then dying because of the pellets."

Mr Goudge said cemetery staff also had to work hard to preserve the cemetery's appearance, particularly in its Victorian section.

He said: "That area is an English Heritage park and garden, we could get into serious trouble if inappropriate changes were made there.

"But if people talk to us we will do what we can. One stone in the Victorian section has an Arsenal badge on it.

"It is made out of an acceptable sort of stone and there was no problem.

"We always say to relatives, talk to us, we will see what can be done"

Updated: 08:37 Monday, September 02, 2002