A DISTRAUGHT daughter has hit out at Fife Council over its insensitivity in spray-painting numbers on available plots at a Fife cemetery.

The Crossgates woman, who lost her mum in January this year, was horrified to discover that vacant lairs at Hillend Cemetery had been identified with large, "obscene" numbering on the concrete base.

She has slammed Fife Council for being "highly insensitive" and was fearful that they would end up spray-painting on the base at her mum's block nearby.

"If they end up doing it on my mum's block, I'll be up there myself with wire wool to try and scrub it off," she said.

She told the Press that she burst into tears once she got home after making the discovery on Friday evening last week.

"It's like Fife Council didn't care," she said.

"The insensitivity of it has saddened me.

"I got home and burst out crying to my other half.

"It's obscene. I've called it graffiti because that's what it looks like.

"No consideration has been made.

"It is as though people set to be buried there are just a number and nothing more.

"This is supposed to be a place where people can go to grieve, mourn and remember and this is how the sites are being kept?"

It is believed that the plot numbers were introduced between Wednesday and Friday last week, June 16-18.

Photographic evidence shows at least 16 free plots have been marked this way, and it is expected that many more were scheduled to be marked similarly.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, questioned why a more discreet method of identifying available plots couldn't have been used instead of the large, white numbers.

She said: "Dog tags could have been used or a stake in the ground. The way they've done this is so insensitive.

"Does Fife Council not have plans they can see online instead of doing it this way?

"I suppose that in this job you would have to desensitise yourself a little but it's as though the Fife Council workers couldn't care about what they were doing.

"If it was their other half or a loved one that was buried there and they had to see these numbers placed beside their loved one's grave, do you think they would be happy with seeing plot numbers like this?

"I know Fife Council have had to make cutbacks but surely cemeteries should be preserved and looked after rather than having this done to them."

When contacted by the Press for comment on the issue, Liz Murphy, bereavement services manager, apologised for any distress the numbering had caused.

She said: "In hindsight the process for marking lairs should have been done more sensitively and we'll do this more discreetly in future."