A GRIEVING mother today defied a York cemetery's rules by laying artificial flowers on her son's grave on what would have been his 48th birthday.

Kathleen Inns, whose son, David, died of cancer 25 years ago, pleaded for relatives to be left alone to grieve and mourn their loved ones in their own way.

Mrs Inns, 67, of Bramham Avenue, Acomb, York, said the New Lane Cemetery at Huntington was "beautiful with the colours of the flowers - real or artificial, what does it matter?"

She went on: "When will these old-fashioned burial authorities realise we are in 2002, and not the Dark Ages any more? If we choose to place artificial flowers on the resting places of our loved ones, we are doing no harm.

"It is a grieving family's way of showing their love and heartache as only they can. When I place my flowers on my precious son's resting place, it is to show him how much he is loved and longed for."

She suggested that people in authority had never known the heartbreak and sorrow of losing a child or a loved one.

She also pointed out that fresh flowers soon faded and died. "Artificial flowers give lovely colour, winter and summer."

She said she would today lay both artificial and real flowers, but she was not being disrespectful in any way.

But cemetery chairman Derek Atlay said that despite the rule, which dated back 15 years, no artificial flowers were ever removed from graves and Mrs Inns's flowers would not be touched.

He said: "I won't be taking the flowers off and I haven't instructed any of our workers to take flowers off either.

"The rule is a committee decision and I can't just overrule that.

"The committee only meets four times a year, but I will make sure it is on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting in about two months' time.

"When we started that rule we knew nothing about the business of running a cemetery, we are all lay people and are not paid.

"We took the rule on because they had a similar one at Fulford Cemetery. Some of their rules have changed but ours haven't.

"But I don't know why people are getting so upset because nobody has been removing the flowers. I think the artificial flowers can look very nice and I like to see them."

Updated: 11:35 Friday, August 02, 2002