Plea to stick to cemetery guidelines

A statement from the council, which also encourages the public to visit the cemetery's 'Garden of Tranquillity', says that a "small number of graves" are flouting health and safety guidelines. Last October councillors were asked to consider whether families of loved ones buried at the municipal cemetery should be allowed to place more than one vase of flowers on the plots of loved ones. But because of the increasing number of graves since the 1980's. a decision was taken against changing the regulations so that the area could be easily maintained by council workers. The restrictions also included no glass wreathes or any structures on, or around, the graves and no planting of trees or shrubs.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the council said: "Due to health and safety issues there is also a height restriction on headstones in the cemetery. All wreathes and floral tributes should be removed after one month, although council staff have been sympathetic regarding this and have used their discretion when dealing with flowers and when they should be removed.

"Unfortunately for the cemetery, there are a small number of graves where these guidelines are not being followed. This creates a problem and creates health and safety issues for council workers when cutting grass and re-opening graves, especially when all items have to be lifted and replaced when carrying out these tasks."

The council spokesperson added: "It would be in the best interest of the cemetery, those who frequent the cemetery and the workers who maintain it if these guidelines were adhered to so whether you had not been aware of these in the past, or had previously just chosen to ignore them, please start to follow them now. It will make all the difference and help keep this Garden of Tranquillity just that."

The council are encouraging the public to visit the garden, named a BBC 'Breathing Place' last year, in the run up to the summer months. A map of the area can be found on the BBC Breathing Places public website: www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces. The wheelchair friendly area has a variety of shrubs and many bird nesting boxes of different sizes. There are also a variety of bird specie, continually encouraged into the area.