(Title Image: Suzanne Jeynes – picture taken in June 2020)
While it’s not the most glamorous of local authority responsibilities, the maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and crematoriums is a service we’ll all have to use at some point. The loss of a loved one is painful enough, but if the place where their remains are kept isn’t treated with due respect and care it could be interpreted as an insult to the deceased and their families.
Suzanne Jeynes lost her father in April 2020. He was buried in an extension to Maesteg Cemetery – authorised in 2007 (pdf) as part of the Washery reclamation scheme and maintained by Bridgend Council.
In an email to the local MP, Chris Elmore (Lab, Ogmore), and senior council officers in June 2020, Suzanne describes the area where her father was buried as “a field of rubble and weeds” and a “shameful and dishonourable environment”. Additionally, there’s no water supply. The council had also failed to cut grass (where it was growing) for at least a month after the cemetery re-opened following the first pandemic lockdown. Families were left to do this work themselves.
This is in stark contrast to the council-administered Coychurch Crematorium, which regularly wins awards for landscaping and levels of service.
Additional emails were sent to Maesteg’s county councillors as well as the local MS, Huw Irranca-Davies (Lab, Ogmore). In Huw’s response, he said he had received representations from constituents about the condition of the cemetery extension and said he would take the matter up with Bridgend Council, but highlighted that council workers were subject to Covid restrictions which had impacted work patterns.
Things got worse and during heavy rain, some of the graves started to sink.
By July 2020 an action plan was drawn up with senior council officers to fix some of the problems. This included topping up sunken graves, installing a water supply, improving general maintenance and improving security to deal with anti-social behaviour.
At the end of 2020, council officers put the project out to tender with a start date of January 2021. Although Suzanne was assured by local councillors funding was available, she was given no guarantees.
By February 2021 it was confirmed no companies responded to the tender, though the budget for the project was increased to make it more attractive.
As of April 2021, very little work has been done and some parts of the extension were described, again, as “piles of rubble”. Some families have resorted to putting in artificial grass (as pictured).
An officer recently confirmed a contract for the project is not now expected to be awarded until June 2021 at the earliest – well over a year after the first complaints were received.
Update: Without giving any timescales, the Cabinet Member for Communities, Cllr. Richard Young (Lab, Pendre), said: “We are continuing to look at temporary measures while we seek to appoint specialists to support our efforts to improve the extended area, and I want to reassure the community that we are committed towards resolving this situation as soon as possible.”
