PLANS to spend £120,000 on Blaenau Gwent’s “neglected” cemeteries have been put on hold while the local authority considers its options.

Senior councillors were recommended by a working group to use funding from Gwent Crematorium to pay for essential maintenance at the borough’s seven cemeteries over three years.

Any extra income generated by the crematorium is shared between the five regional authorities, with Blaenau Gwent receiving £247,000 more than anticipated this year.

It was suggested that other councils were earmarking their shares of the pot to invest in upkeep at their cemeteries

But executive members rejected the proposals in September, saying that the surplus funds had not been formally received by the council.

The council’s leader and deputy leader, Nigel Daniels and Garth Collier, appeared before the regeneration and environment scrutiny committee on Thursday to explain their reasoning.

“[The working group] agreed to allocate money before it was coming into the council account, which was baffling,” said Cllr Daniels.

“That £120,000 wasn’t costed against anything, and that is bad financial practice.

“It’s difficult to compare our financial situation to other Gwent local authorities.

"The neglect of our cemeteries over the last five years is a major factor but we will prioritise them.”

READ MORE: Council calls for urgent review of 'declining' cemeteries in Blaenau Gwent

At the executive meeting in September, Cllr Daniels said cemeteries had “deteriorated to an unacceptable standard” after a lack of investment in recent years.

The leader’s remarks were refuted by Councillor Hedley McCarthy, who led the authority between 2012 and 2015 while it was Labour controlled.

“Those five years were probably the most financially challenging times this authority has ever had to face and when you’ve got to find £11 million to find, it’s challenging,” he said on Thursday.

Cllr Daniels denied that he was making a “political issue” of the situation.

Council officers have now been asked to find out the amount of maintenance needed on a site-by-site basis before any money is spent.

But the meeting heard that the work is not likely to start until after Christmas.

Independent councillor Wayne Hodgins accepted that cemeteries had been neglected while the council balanced its books and called for work to begin urgently.

“We're going to have to increase cemetery fees so it’s only right to have a proper infrastructure for our public when they go to our cemeteries,” said Cllr Hodgins.

“It needs to be done right and rapidly. We don’t want to apply a sticking plaster on the gaping wound.”