A WOMAN whose child died from cancer at the age of six has been forced to clean dog excrement from his grave.

Suzanne Williams, 44, who lives with her partner in Barton-le-Street, regularly visits the grave of her son James, who is buried in Norton Cemetery.

Last Thursday was the 12th anniversary of James’s death, and when she visited the grave she found that a dog had fouled on it.

She said: “The children’s graves are all in a row in Norton Cemetery, and we noticed that there was some dog muck on the grave of a little girl buried next to my son. I knelt down to pick it up and put it in a bag, in some of the long grass near my son’s grave, and there was some more dog muck in the grass which I knelt in.

“I went to try to wash it off at an outdoor tap, and I noticed that some more dog muck had got onto my handbag.”

Ms Williams says that this is the third time this has happened to her.

She said: “I’m getting fed up, because it was a difficult day already without having to deal with this. I go and put flowers on my son’s grave frequently and it is important to me that it looks nice and well kept.

“We have a dog, so it is not that I don’t like dogs, I just can’t believe that any dog owner would let their dog foul in a cemetery.”

Ms Williams stressed that she did not blame Norton Town Council, which, she said did a good job of looking after the cemetery. At the cemetery, a sign clearly shows that dogs must be on a lead and are not allowed to foul.

Her complaint coincides with a discussion at Norton Town Council on Monday about the amount of dog dirt at the picnic area by the riverside in Norton.

David Lloyd Williams, mayor of Norton, said: “The small minority of dog owners who take their dogs into the cemetery are breaking local bylaws, and showing a contemptuous attitude. I appeal to the good nature of people to behave as they would want others to behave if the dogs were fouling their own front gardens.”