Over recent years the problem with badgers has steadily increased to the extent that more setts are being dug all over the cemetery, creating major risks as their burrowing activities are now undermining large headstones.

Kevin Carr, the council’s head of Facilities, Waste and Grounds Services, said: “Badgers digging in the cemetery area has now reached a potentially dangerous level and may also cause upset to people who have relatives interred there.

“Badgers are very well protected so the council will be working with Nature Scot once the breeding season finishes in June, to look at appropriate ways to mitigate the damage these animals are causing in the cemetery.

“We appreciate people may be well intended, however we urge anyone who is leaving out food for the badgers to stop as this will greatly help with the problem which has now reached a serious level.”

Feeding badgers also feeds foxes and it is a bad idea to have animals that can be dangerous losing their fear of humans.

John Darbyshire, local ecologist and badger expert, said: “The damage badgers can do can be prodigious and they can literally cause a building, road or railway to subside. So, I recommend that everyone who is feeding the badgers now, in Lanark, to stop.”