Parish councillors last week agreed to pay for new fencing at a historic cemetery in Shenley in response to concerns that horses were being ridden through it.

Shenley Parish Council voted to put £2,000 towards new boundary fencing and improving the main entrance at St Botolph's Churchyard, in Shenleybury.

Hoof-prints were spotted in the cemetery with increasing regularity last autumn, and the council is keen to fence off an opening which riders have used.

The money will also help pay for alterations to the churchyard's entrance, which is currently too narrow to allow coffins to be carried through it.

The cemetery is the responsibility of St Martin's Church, which receives a small grant from the borough council to pay for the grass to be mown.

However, parish councillors, concerned about its untidy state, have asked the borough council to take over the management of the churchyard.