A bungling council which sanctioned the toppling of hundreds of headstones is to restore them at its own expense.

More than 600 headstones at cemeteries in Lewes and Seaford were flattened by contractors for Lewes District Council in a controversial safety-testing move.

But councillors have now agreed to pay for the reinstatement of all memorials following a public outcry from grieving relatives who had not been forewarned.

Many only found their loved ones' headstones had been flattened when they went to tend their graves.

Council leader Ann de Vecchi yesterday formally apologised for the distress caused, saying lessons had been learned from the fiasco.

She said: "We are all much more aware about this complex issue. We hope we have learned from the mistakes that occurred.

"We apologise to residents for the upset the laying down of the memorials has caused.

"We acknowledge we failed to give grave-owners enough information about the testing process in advance."

Councillors on the district council's ruling Cabinet agreed to approve the recommendations of a special sub-committee set up in the wake of the fiasco.

A £25,000 budget has been allocated to implement the proposals, which included restoring all memorials.

The memorials were laid flat following the death of a six-year-old child who was crushed by a falling memorial in North Yorkshire.

After yesterday's meeting, council officials appealed for people whose relatives' memorials had been flattened to contact them by the end of this year to arrange for the headstones to be restored. The council can be contacted on 01273 484393.

At a seminar in Seaford last week, experts from the National Association of Memorial Masons called for the introduction of a national memorial testing standard.

They also criticised the laying down of smaller memorials, saying they would have posed little risk.