A HEARTBROKEN woman has spoken of her anger after cemetery workers 'desecrated' her partner's grave at Yeadon Cemetery.

Patricia Faulkes, 49, was appalled when she found that the two wreaths she had placed on the grave of her partner Anthony Schofield had been taken away without permission in February.

Mr Schofield, 50, died suddenly almost a year ago, and Mrs Faulkes visits his grave every week.

She placed a wreath decorated with berries on his grave at Christmas, and laid another wreath in January.

Mrs Faulkes has since received an apology from Leeds Leisure Services, which tends to cemeteries in the Leeds area - but was angered to hear that workman may again remove wreaths or flowers from the cemetery next February.

She believes many of those who visit the graves of partners or relatives at Yeadon Cemetery may have put the loss of flowers down to vandals. Mrs Faulkes said: "I feel so strongly about this, and I think it's something that needs to be highlighted. All the other people just won't know what has happened. I think it's absolutely appal-ling."

She said she had originally assumed the wreaths had been stolen or thrown away by vandals, although she had never heard of any incidents of vandalism at the cemetery.

Mrs Faulkes added: "My first impression was that they had been taken, which is upsetting.

"I own the grave, so who gave them the right to remove anything from the grave? As far as I'm concerned, they desecrated my late partner's grave."

Then another visitor revealed that flowers had gone missing from her grave, and many of the other graves in the cemetery had no flowers on them. She told Mrs Faulkes she believed Leeds Leisure Services had been removing wreaths from the graves.

A Leeds Leisure Services parks and countryside manager apologised to Mrs Faulkes. The cemeteries department also apologised, and sent a £30 cheque to pay for the flowers she had lost, but said that they would clear flowers from the graves again next February

However, Mrs Faulkes believes it is wrong for the council to remove anything from without permission.

She has not cashed the cheque sent to her by Leeds Leisure Services.

A council spokesman said: "Wreaths and flowers laid over the Christmas period usually die after the winter period, which is why our staff remove them.

"Clearly on this occasion there was an oversight and the wreaths were mistakenly removed. For this distress and inconvenience, we have already reimbursed Mrs Faulkes to cover expenses."