Graveside mourners are surrounded by mud and scaffolding - all because of the cold snap.

Frost has broken up the newly-laid concrete around 30 headstones in Maidstone Cemetery.

It means that gravestones which were displaced for maintenance work just a few weeks ago have had to be dug up again.

Families who suffered the heartache of seeing the cemetery disrupted are now going through another ordeal.

One 70-year-old mourner from Maidstone, who visits the cemetery to tend to the grave of his wife, said: “When I got there a man with a pneumatic drill was carrying out work.

“I was shocked by just what a state the cemetery was in. There is mud and heavy machinery tyre tracks everywhere.

“It really is very distressing."

Some headstones have been laid on the ground, while others have been secured with large metal clamps, while new concrete bases are laid.

A Maidstone council spokesman said: “The cost has been absorbed by the council’s contractors.”

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