An Aberdeenshire woman, left distraught when tributes at her husband’s grave were torn to pieces by a council worker has been reimbursed – almost five months after the incident happened.
Mary Dalziel went to visit the grave of her late husband, Richard, in the Banchory-Ternan Kirkyard in early September 2016 and found the heads of the plastic flowers had been sawn off.
An Aberdeenshire Council landscaper had accidentally chopped them with a strimmer while carrying out maintenance at the site.
However, it has taken the local authority about five months to pay Mrs Dalziel back for the damage caused.
Initially, the council said it would replace the tributes at the headstone. But Mrs Dalziel had already done that after buying flowers from Banchory’s Raemoir Garden Centre.
The family was then told they would be reimbursed for the cost, which was about £43.50. However, Mrs Dalziel did not keep the receipt.
She obtained a bank statement showing the transaction which took place at the garden centre in September, and also kept hold of the price tags of each flower.
Following a story in the Press and Journal on January 18, the family had to send another e-mail to the local authority, but they have only now been paid back the cost of the replacement flowers.
Mr Dalziel died on January 9, 2003, aged 48.
Last night Mrs Dalziel’s daughter, Lynda Moonan, of Banchory, said: “We have been paid back finally, it just took forever. We had to send another e-mail to them.
“This happened back in September, and we finally got paid in January, but it could have been sorted pretty quick if they had just listened.
“My mum is pretty relieved now that it is finished with and it is all sorted. It was the hurt from when she first went down and saw the mess of the place.
“We are just glad it is sorted.”
Speaking in January, the authority’s head of roads, landscape services and waste management, Philip McKay, described what had happened as an “unfortunate incident”.
He added the council’s dealings with the family had only been so protracted because of “a lack of clarity on our part over whether the family was seeking replacement or reimbursement” of the flowers.
He added: “We fully appreciate the distress this may have caused, and have apologised to the family.”