A FAMILY is challenging town chiefs over a rule which keeps new gravestones in a section of Witton Cemetery looking the same.

Northwich Town Council rules state that gravestones in two cremated remains sections at the bottom of the cemetery, next to St Helen Witton Church, should look the same – black with straight edges.

But Adrian Plumb believes he should be able to buy different gravestones for his family, with other gravestones close by having more individual designs.

He bought a plot following the death of his father Keith in June, and is planning ahead for his mother Margaret, 82.

Adrian told the Guardian: "We are only asking for something that is subtle.

"It's not a rule that has always been in place. If it was a new cemetery I could understand it, but there are other rows with different gravestones.

"I was told by the council that the rule keeps the cemetery looking neat, but why do the stones have to be all black and square?

"I've asked other people who have had relatives commemorated in the same area if they would have a problem with a different design, and they said no."

Liza Clansey, registrar at Northwich Town Council, told the Guardian that the rules have been in place since 2013, when it first agreed to sell 24 plots at the bottom of the cemetery, before then selling another 84 in another area.

She said the council agreed at the time the rule would make the cemetery look 'tidy', and that Adrian agreed to them before changing his mind after buying the plot for his father's gravestone.

"We are really sorry that Adrian is unhappy, and this must be distressing for his mother to go through," she said.

"We bend over backwards to make sure our customers are happy, but we can't change the rule for one person when we've told 30 to 40 people something else.

"If he had been really insistent that he couldn't agree to the rules at the time then we could have sorted something out.

"But he was told of the rules before he bought the plot, and he agreed to them. He said he had the right to change his mind, which he does, but we could have come to a different arrangement."

Mrs Clansey added that no other customers have complained about the rule.