SOUTH Ayrshire Council’s new leader has promised to fully compensate 126 families whose relatives’ graves are flooded at Ayr Cemetery.

A number of coffins are fully submerged in rainwater and families have been battling the council over plans to exhume the bodies in order to carry out drainage work.

Martin Dowey, who led the South Ayrshire Conservatives to victory in the recent election, told BBC Scotland this week that he would make the families’ wishes his number one priority.

The council has asked the relatives for permission for the bodies to be exhumed. The bodies would then be stored at a facility at Prestwick Airport while the graves are drained. They would then be placed in new coffins and reburied in their original plots.

However, some families are upset that the new coffins would be chosen by the council.

A number of relatives have refused to give permission for exhumation and asked for full compensation for coffins of their choice. They also want reburial ceremonies to take place.

Natalie Campbell, who buried her father Norrie Kennedy in 2018, told the BBC: “It’s been really terrible. We’ve tried to shield my kids from it but my son said to me the other night ‘does that mean my papa is drowning?’

“We were meticulous with all the details of my dad’s funeral. We were lucky enough that we were able to discuss it with my dad before he passed.

“It was done just perfectly. Now, we’re going to have to do it all again.”

The Advertiser reported this month how families were given just five days to decide whether to exhume relatives – or leave them in place while the work went on.