“I COULDN’T believe that they let somewhere that is so precious and so emotional for so many parents to be left in disarray.”

Those are the words of a Basingstoke mother who was left shocked after visiting her daughter’s grave to find the grass surrounding it and other headstones had been left to grow to around five feet.

Tracey Butler went to her daughter’s grave on June 11 at the children and baby cemetery in Rooksdown Cemetery.

She says the ground had not been attended to for months, which left many of the graves inaccessible.

Tracey said: “It would have been my daughter’s 18th birthday on 10th June. My mum and dad went up there on the Friday (June 10) to arrange some balloons and my mum called me, she said ‘Tracey I need to warn you, it is terrible, it has really upset me, and I think it is going to upset you’.”

Her mum and dad cut the grass around Tracey’s daughter’s grave, so it was accessible for the 48-year-old who usually relies on a wheelchair.

“When I went up there, I was absolutely shocked and devastated. It is very clear that the ground maintenance team haven’t been up there in months, if not longer.”

Another mother was also at the cemetery and was left visibly upset by the state of the burial space.

The cemetery is owned by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Basingstoke, Winchester and Andover hospitals.

Usually, the grass between the stones is cut, but it had been left to grow to around five feet, and in some cases, Tracey said, headstones were not even visible.

Tracey emailed the trust’s customer care department, PALS, and got a response this week. She was told that her email had been passed to the manager and the associate director for estates and facilities.

“Don’t get me wrong, we have had Covid and I know how that everyone has been stretched but I have seen people out the front of the hospital watering the plants.”

Tracey said she does not feel her complaint has been dealt with sensitively, adding: “I really would have hoped that someone from the estates team would have sent me an email.”

Tracey lost her daughter, Charlotte, at 38 weeks on June 10, 2004, after she went in to be induced as she has diabetes and doctors told her that she should not go to full-term, but no heartbeat was found.

A spokesperson from Hampshire Hospitals said: “We understand the importance of this area to families, and work closely with our contractors to ensure the upkeep of the Rooksdown Cemetery grounds for loved ones to visit.

"We apologise that not all areas are able to be attended to during each visit made, and further work has been carried out this week to remove overgrown grass. Regular maintenance is scheduled over the summer period, and we will closely monitor this to ensure full accessibility to all areas of the cemetery.”

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