Hundreds of gravestones toppled by a council should have been left standing because of their height, say campaigners.

When testing the stones in Seaford and Lewes cemeteries, Lewes District Council followed guidelines laid down by the Health and Safety Executive.

But the same guidelines said the topple tester, a German-made machine, was only suitable for gravestones more than a metre high and better suited to German memorials.

Sally Woodgate's son Stuart is buried in Seaford cemetery. At 2ft 6in, his headstone was well under the metre guideline but was laid flat.

Mrs Woodgate, of Seafield Close, Seaford, said: "Our son's stone certainly wasn't more than a metre tall. There seem to be so many things they have done that they shouldn't have.

"My husband has written another letter to the council because he didn't get his questions answered.

"All we want is for the graves to be reinstated."

More than 300 stones were laid flat and Mrs Woodgate believed many were less than a metre high.

Linda Wilson, of Hythe Crescent, Seaford, whose daughter's gravestone was toppled, said the guidelines were there in black and white.

She said: "We have a copy of the instructions from the topple tester which says the same thing and I have sent them to our MP, Norman Baker."

A council spokeswoman said: "The metre issue was not looked at before the work was carried out."

She said the Health and Safety Executive guidelines were under review and would probably be changed.

The council said it acted after a boy died under a falling monument in North Yorkshire three years ago.

Meanwhile, Mr Baker is to raise the issue of the gravestones in Parliament.

The Lib Dem MP for Lewes will be introducing a debate on the subject next Monday.

Constituents inundated him with calls after the council toppled more than 600 headstones in the two cemeteries Mr Baker said: "It has caused considerable anguish for relatives and friends of the deceased to find headstones flattened when they arrived to pay their respects.

"I believe there is an urgent need for the Government to clarify both the standards applicable to the erection of headstones and the safety testing councils are expected to carry out."

The council has put its testing programme on hold while it attempts to contact hundreds of families.