A WIRRAL company has apologised for any upset caused after a wedding bouquet was thrown in a bin at Landican Cemetery.

Grave-Care told the Globe that Joanne McKeown’s bouquet, along with two buttonholes were thrown away as part of the normal course of maintenance on the grave of her father Phillip on July 5.

As reported last week it was believed cemetery staff had put them in the bin because they were too big.

But Susan Simpson, who runs Irby-based Grave Care with daughter Stacey, contacted us this week to confirm that this was not the case.

She added that the flowers had been thrown away as they had turned brown in the summer heat, but this would not have happed had the company been aware of the reason they had been placed on the grave.

A spokesman for Wirral Council, which manages Landican, said: "This was clearly a tragic misunderstanding and the staff at Landican are pleased that the facts of the matter have now come out and feel vindicated by this.

"The officers at Landican are very sensitive to the importance of memorials and would not have removed anything without first consulting the families involved."

Mrs Simpson has been in contact with Joanne and as a gesture of goodwill the company has agreed to place new flowers.

She said: "We tend over 200 graves and have been working as a family for over 11 years.

"This is the first time anything like this has happened. We began Grave-Care because we care about how people feel when they visit the graves of their loved ones.

"This is why, when we saw the article in the paper that we contacted Joanne straight away.

"We don't want her to suffer anymore upset than she already has.

"Had we been advised by a family member not to remove the bridal bouquet, no matter what its condition, then we would have left it on the grave.

"Joanne now has our direct telephone number and will contact us directly  in the future. We have, as a gesture, offered to plant out the grave and place some white roses in the urns on the next visit which is approximately August 6."  

Joanne says she was told by cemetery staff the flowers were taken off the grave because according to the rules they were "too big."

She later found her floral tributes in a nearby litter bin.

Joanne told the Globe last week that when she confronted cemetery staff they told her that as the bouquet was larger than 18 inches it had "been removed and placed in the bin."

Mystery surrounds who it was she had spoken to and a council investigation is underway.

Mother-of-one Joanne, who lives in Wallasey, said: "I'm grateful to Sue from Grave-Care for getting in touch about what happened and for offering to put some flowers in their place. It's a positive end to a distressing experience.

"But I would still like to know why I was told by cemetery staff that the flowers had been thrown away because they were too big for the grave."