BRFM Swale Borough Council’s Planned Clean-up of the Borough’s Cemeteries
Written by karen on 25 April 2017
Grave owners are being asked to make sure that items on the graves they tend are secure and tidy ahead of a planned clean-up of the borough’s cemeteries.
The council and its grounds maintenance contractor are planning a tidy up of items left in all of our cemeteries.
Any items that lay outside of the grave plots and can’t obviously be attributed to a grave will be stored. Any broken items or those in a poor condition will be removed and disposed of.
Dangerous items directly on graves will be removed for health and safety and stored at the site offices. A record of these will be kept, and they will be retained for six months before they are disposed of.
Grave owners will need to contact the cemetery office on 01795 417452 to check if items are being stored and to arrange collection.
Swale Borough Council have said “We recognise that residents will have personal preferences as to how they remember their loved ones, however items left on graves can cause problems for the maintenance teams and also sometimes pose a risk to others such as glass, flammable materials, matches, lighters and vessels of alcohol.”
“Items should always be placed within the boundary of the grave and secured as much as possible as wind, animals and – unfortunately – vandals all contribute to items being spread around the cemetery, which makes it difficult to work out ownership and can often lead to breakages.”
The tidy up is planned to begin in May, giving grave owners time to visit and tend their graves ahead of the process.
For more information please call the cemetery and burials team on 01795 417312.
(Photo and information from the Swale Borough Council Facebook page)
