Dead man sent bill for own gravestone
Council officials sent a £440 bill to a dead man asking him to pay for his own gravestone.
Published: 7:28PM BST 10 Jun 2009
Jennifer Williams, 70, received a letter from the council, addressed to her late father George Weaver, asking him to renew the lease on his granite plaque.
They warned Mr Weaver - who died in 1998 - that if he failed to renew the lease on his plaque within three months it would be removed.
Jennifer's husband Ross, 71, criticised the council for its "gross insensitivity".
He said: "They're writing to a dead man, asking him for £440. It's disgusting. My wife's ill already, and she was so upset when she opened the letter.
"She's hardly slept since with worrying about it. The council have been grossly insensitive.
"Surely someone must have realised that they were writing to a dead man.
"If they had addressed it to me or my wife, it would have been fine. But to see that letter to her dad, who's been dead 10 years, well it just brought it all back."
Ross and Jennifer paid £440 for a plaque which read 'George Weaver, Gone But Not Forgotten' when he died after a short illness aged 78.
He was cremated at Astwood Cemetery in Worcester and the plaque was erected on his memorial.
Ross said: "I went into the office at the time and they offered me this plaque, but nobody told me it was only for 10 years.
"As far as I was concerned, it was there forever.
"I'm not going to pay it. My wife said she's not going to. We're both pensioners."
Ian Yates, parks and cemeteries manager at Worcester City Council, said: "We will investigate the background, and we will be in touch with Mr Williams directly.
"There's a lot of notes and records going back 10 years we need to double-check, and we'll be getting on with that straight away."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ravestone.html 
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