MOURNERS have been banned from leaving plastic flowers at a village graveyard because church leaders say they are disrespectful to the dead.

The church of St Peter's, in Powick, brought in the ban earlier this month after deciding the plastic ones looked untidy.

The vicar The Rev. Sue Irwin said: "It's about wanting to treat people with honour and respect. Plastic flowers tend to fade and look untidy. We didn't feel it was respectful to people who have died."

She told an annual meeting of the parish council that people would not be allowed to leave the plastic flowers from May 1, although they had first been informed of the ban earlier in the year.

However, not everyone agreed with the ban. Council chairman Andy Lamb said fresh flowers could also look untidy.

He said: "Live flowers only last about 30 seconds."

However, parochial church council (PCC) member Meg Allsopp said the decision had only been taken after lengthy discussion.

She said: "It was because they tend to fade and look tatty after a while.

"It was decided only to allow fresh or silk flowers and not plastic ones with the only exceptions on Remembrance Day and for Christmas wreaths."

She added volunteers had agreed to check the churchyard every three months and remove plastic or dead flowers.

She added: "What we are avoiding is people coming down once a year and not turning up again for another 12 months."

The decision was taken after the Friends of St Peter's started taking steps to improve the churchyard.

This year, the church has also entered a competition for the Best Kept Churchyard 2007, which includes tidiness and the absence of litter or dead flowers from graves as criteria for winning.

Mrs Allsopp said: "There may be people who object, but to my knowledge I haven't heard of anyone."

A spokesman for the Worcester Diocese said: "We generally disapprove of plastic flowers in churchyards but there is some flexibility for individual churches.

"We want to make sure churchyards are a pleasant place for everybody who uses them."