GRIEVING families will need a permit to erect a roadside memorial in Logan under new local laws endorsed by council last Tuesday.

They will also only be allowed to keep the memorial in place for two years from the deceased person’s date of death.

Failure to comply with these rules may result in the memorial being removed by council.

The new laws are a part of citywide cemetery laws adopted by council last week.

The laws have now been sent to the State Government for checking and if approved will be in force from January 2012.

Described as a “compromise” by Logan councillors, the laws have been slammed by two Jimboomba mothers who lost their sons to road accidents.

Jimboomba’s Diane Daw and Donna Powell (pictured above), said the restrictions on grieving families were too much.

Ms Powell’s son David, then 18, died in a car accident on the corner of Swan and Wynne Roads, Jimboomba in 2009 while Ms Daw’s son Dan, then 16, died in an accident in 2008.

“They’re assuming that in two years that’s enough time for everyone but to me they need to look at the bigger,” Ms Daw said.

“It’s been three years since Dan was killed and I had a bit of a get together with Dan’s friends and they (council) need to sit down and see that (Dan’s friends) still can’t accept (his death). They’re still struggling with what happened and so it just doesn’t go away.”

Ms Daw said applying for a permit would have been the last thing on her mind as she came to terms with her son’s death.

Ms Powell, who late last year was asked to remove her son’s memorial by council, said she felt David was being forgotten.

“I’m angry and upset to think that those lives aren’t worth anything. There was no reason for them to be lost and no reason for them to be lost again,” she said.

Under the new laws, roadside memorials must abide by certain conditions including size restrictions, distance from roads and footpaths.

With regards to existing memorials, a council spokeswoman said council officers would not remove the memorial unless it was outside the specified guidelines or unsafe.

“The existing memorials will continue to be regulated under the existing laws and these will continue to apply to those memorials. The former Beaudesert local laws specified memorials should be removed after a period of two years,” she said.

The spokeswoman said residents would be required to obtain a permit to keep their roadside memorials if a complaint was made to council about the memorial.