A LANCASTER man says he wants the city council to remove a tree which fell over the area where his daughter and father-in-law are buried.

The tree fell in the city's main cemetery, close to the Moor Hospital site, almost two years ago, and Alwyn Stavert says he has complained to the cemeteries department on several occasions since.

He said: "I have called them a few times and they say something will be done, but nothing ever happens.

"I called them before Christmas and I was assured that the contractors were coming in the second week of January, but nothing has been done.

"If the contractors don't want to get rid of it I don't understand why they can't chop the tree up and let people who have wood burning fires use it.

"I see the council spending money on new things in town that are much more expensive than sorting this out, but that are less useful."

Mr Stavert's daughter, Barbara, died at the age of four and was buried with her grandfather. Mr Stavert also tends the graves of his wife and his other daughter, both of which are in the same cemetery.

He added: "I spend a lot of time in the cemetery, tending the graves. As luck would have it there were no headstones where this tree fell down, but I know that my daughter and father-in-law are there."

A city council spokeswoman said: "This is a very large beech tree which will require machinery to remove it. Our contract services division does not have that machinery so we have had to contract an outside firm to do it.

"They were scheduled to remove it earlier in the year, but unfortunately, they had to cancel.

"We are mindful of the need to have this tree removed and we are chasing up the contractors to make sure they do it."