A LOCAL authority has tidied up a cemetery days after a woman took a clean-up campaign into her own hands.

Sonja Ross was so sick of the long grass covering the graves of her relatives at St Paul's churchyard, in Quarrington Hill, she decided to cut it herself.

The 40-year-old, of Grange Crescent, Coxhoe, went there on Friday with a petrol strimmer to crop the overgrown resting places of eight of her relatives.

But this week workers from Durham City Council have cut the grass.

Mrs Ross said: "It is totally disgusting that it has been allowed to get in that state.

"When you look at other cemeteries they are nice and tidy.

"The parish and city council should have their heads knocked together to sort this out once and for all."

Coxhoe Parish Council asked Durham City Council to carry out the work following a plea by villagers last week.

They were concerned the cemetery was falling in disrepair while responsibility for its upkeep is transferred from the parish council to the city.

A city council spokesman said: "The parish council currently control it but they do not have grass cutting facilities so the city will be contracted in to do the work and keep the closed cemetery up to a reasonable standard."