REGARDING the criticism of the appearance of Pleasington Cemetery in Blackburn (Letters, September 18), rules may be laid down on the inception of such an amenity, but a cemetery belongs to the people and will develop as those who use it would wish it to be.

This summer at Pleasington I have witnessed a riot of colour from freshly placed flowers and, yes, other knick-knacks that would put some parks to shame.

Your correspondent has got it wrong, I'm afraid -- cemeteries are for the living to remember us by once we are dust. And we all remember in our different fashions.

My friend takes fresh flowers to her husband's and also to her brother's memorial every couple of weeks and as she cleans the stone, removes the wilting flowers which she then replaces with fresh blooms, I know that her thoughts are of him and the way they were. The simple act of making his plot tidy is of immeasurable comfort to her.

Serried ranks of cold gravestones and no flowers to be seen? I think not. As I sit there, I see families and individuals spending a little time keeping fresh the memory of someone who was dear to them.

The combined results of all their care is a place full of colour that is as cheerful and pleasing as it could be.

As fpr "lawns" between the graves. That is almost a joke. How would the spaces of lawn between your simple headstones be kept? Well, if the example of the state of the present spaces between plots can be used as a guide then it would be akin to a farmer's field at haymaking, the grass being strimmed when it is around a foot high and the dead grass left to lie -- the bits that are not thrown all over the carefully tended plots, that is.

The children's windmills are said to deter moles. If so, we need more windmills.

BRIAN CLAYTON, Whinfield Place, Blackburn.

REGARDING the criticism of the appearance of Pleasington Cemetery in Blackburn (Letters, September 18), rules may be laid down on the inception of such an amenity, but a cemetery belongs to the people and will develop as those who use it would wish it to be.

This summer at Pleasington I have witnessed a riot of colour from freshly placed flowers and, yes, other knick-knacks that would put some parks to shame.

Your correspondent has got it wrong, I'm afraid -- cemeteries are for the living to remember us by once we are dust. And we all remember in our different fashions.

My friend takes fresh flowers to her husband's and also to her brother's memorial every couple of weeks and as she cleans the stone, removes the wilting flowers which she then replaces with fresh blooms, I know that her thoughts are of him and the way they were. The simple act of making his plot tidy is of immeasurable comfort to her.

Serried ranks of cold gravestones and no flowers to be seen? I think not. As I sit there, I see families and individuals spending a little time keeping fresh the memory of someone who was dear to them.

The combined results of all their care is a place full of colour that is as cheerful and pleasing as it could be.

As for "lawns" between the graves. That is almost a joke. How would the spaces of lawn between your simple headstones be kept? Well, if the example of the state of the present spaces between plots can be used as a guide then it would be akin to a farmer's field at haymaking, the grass being strimmed when it is around a foot high and the dead grass left to lie -- the bits that are not thrown all over the carefully tended plots, that is.

The children's windmills are said to deter moles. If so, we need more windmills.

BRIAN CLAYTON, Whinfield Place, Blackburn.