BRADFORD Council have apologised for causing distress to a woman after they failed to maintain a grave where her sister lays.

In 1970, Maxine Feasey's sibling Sonya was still-born and buried along with many other babies at Scholemoor Cemetery.

Over the past few months, the area has been tainted by overgrown weeds, which have since been removed this morning after the Telegraph & Argus made contact with the Council.

Sonya was not the only tragedy parents Rita, 69, and Barrie, 72, Turner suffered in a torrid period. The couple lost son Karl when he was only four months old.

He is buried in the same cemetery but the family have been able to maintain his individual grave.

The family moved over to Morecambe in 1976 and still regularly visit Bradford to pay their respects.

"It is a disgrace and so disrespectful. It has been like that for quite a while now," Sonya said.

"We want those weeds removed, not just for us, but for other parents. How awful must it be to stand there and look at that.

"They are not allowed to mark the graves anyway by putting flowers on because it’s a public grave.

"It shouldn’t be like that, they should be able to mark their child’s grave in some way."

Maxine added: "In those days they just took the baby off you, and you couldn’t see them.

"There is only one stone that says memories of the babies, but it has been there a long time, you can hardly tell what it says on it. I wouldn’t like to guess how many babies are in there.

"For my parents, it is still very raw they were both young when my sister and brother died.

"When my sister was born asleep it was so hard for them they didn’t even know if they had had a boy or a girl.

"My dad had to ask them for the gender and they didn’t even know what she passed away from. They thought they were doing the best thing for the parents, these days it is a lot different.

"They walked past where my sister is in those public graves for years to get to my brother's grave not knowing she was there."

A Bradford Council spokesperson said: “We apologise for any distress caused by the overgrown grass on these graves and will arrange for it to be cut as soon as possible.”