GRAVES offer a focal point for mourning. They are somewhere to visit, a place to take fresh flowers or the occasional memento.

And, if vandals don't pinch your gifts, these, too, can help in the grieiving process.

Wilf Ball endured terrible torment when his three year-old son Jonathan died in the Warrington bomb blast 11 years ago. And the little boys' grave with its teddy bear headstone, flowerpots and gifts is a place where he has sought solace ever since.

Now, Warrington Council has ordered him to remove all signs of sentimentality in a clampdown to enforce rules and regulations.

The Cheetham family from Harwood had a similar problem when they were asked to remove a special memorial to their daughter Hayley who died in a fire.

The same argument about rules and regulations was used, but they won their case in the end.

Let's hope Wilf Ball is equally successful. Mourning is civilised and necessary. It is what psychologists advise us to do when someone we love dies in order to accept what has happened, and move on.

Personalising graves within reason sounds like just the kind of therapy that they would normally prescribe.

I hope some jumped up Jobsworth does not win here, and that Wilf and all those who need to mourn the best way they can are allowed to do so.