Take-over urged for cemetery (From Free Press Series)

Take-over urged for cemetery

TOWN councillors in Caldicot are calling on Monmouthshire council to take over responsibility of the town's cemetery, following controversial safety inspection work last year.

Members of the town council say the management and upkeep of all cemeteries in Monmouthshire are the responsibility of the county council and Caldicot is the only town to run its own.

The demand on Monmouthshire county council to take over the management of Caldicot Cemetery, in Dewstow Road, follows a programme of health and safety checks on memorials last year.

The inspection work was met with a backlash from residents after headstones deemed to be unsafe were laid to the ground.

Three independent town councillors, including Cllr Jim Harries, Cllr Ken Thomas and Cllr Paul Tidmarsh, together with the Plaid Cymru ruling group, have called for the issue to be discussed at today's council meeting.

Cllr Jim Harries said: "There is indecisive safety advice for town councillors with regards to the cemetery and we are lay people, not structural engineers. The people with such disciplines are in Monmouthshire county council.

"St Mary's Church graveyard is also becoming full and by law we could become responsible and there are some very big headstones there which need looking at."

"It is a big responsibility and Monmouthshire council have the right people to deal with this sort of thing."

Caldicot Mayor Cllr Ron Stewart said: "It has caused so much hassle in the past and people were still not happy because the grass hadn't been cut and the grass around the graves had not been trimmed. This has been done now, but there were other problems such as the road into the cemetery which needs resurfacing.

"It is the only cemetery in the county run by the town council - the others are all run by the county council."

Councillors will also consider a letter this week from the Monmouthshire Cemeteries Group, which was set up by the Cabinet to look at how to make cemeteries safer, with minimum disruption to the public.

They are recommending the 35kg pressure on the 'topple tester' used on headstones be reduced to a 20kg force.

Cllr Stewart added: "We voted to hold the re-testing until Monmouthshire county council came back with something which is acceptable. We are very critical of the 35kg testing, which we believe could weaken the stones. Monmouthshire cemetery group are trying to do something about this and recommend reducing the pressure to 20kg."