AN emotional appeal from bereaved people has led a council to promise to sort out a flooding problem at a cemetery.

Nearly 100 complaints about flooding at Stranton Cemetery, in Hartlepool, have been received by the borough council in the past six months.

This week the council's cabinet committee approved a two-year scheme to sort out drainage problems.

The authority, which has already conducted a £10,000 drainage survey, will undertake remedial works to the existing drainage system, at a cost of £112,000, and will spend an additional £200,000 to extend the drainage system.

The scheme has been agreed after a number of emotional public consultation meetings, including one in which a 13-year-old girl told of her distress at the state of the flooded graves.

Sandra Fenwick, chairman of the environmental stewardship and regeneration scrutiny forum, presented the findings of the forum's investigation into the problem to the cabinet.

She said: "The last couple of meetings have been very emotional. People got very distressed when they talked about the flooding. In some cases there has been three- quarters of an inch of water across most parts of the cemetery.

"Because the bereaved can become so upset I think it's only right for the council to do something about this.

"It's for future generations as well. Some work has already been done on the gullies and people have been very pleased just to see anything being done."

Some of the drainage gullies had become blocked with leaves and damaged by tree roots. These have been cleaned out but much of the additional work will be carried out piecemeal during the next two years.