Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Martin offering to keep graves tidy
A LANDSCAPE gardener’s offer to maintain graves at cemeteries in Dundee for free during lockdown has been turned down by Dundee City Council.
Martin Callaghan, of Callaghan Gardening, made the gesture after the local authority reduced services in Dundee City Council-managed cemeteries as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Martin, from Broughty Ferry, said the offer has already been met with a positive response from the public.
He said: “In some cases I don’t think the grass has been cut this year. I had initially gone up to maintain other sites for relatives of family members as they couldn’t get up to them directly.
“I realised there might be people working or elderly people who are unable to get out and I wanted to offer a service over this period to cut the grass for free if people wished.
“I’ve been up to Balgay and Barnhill and both sites have been quite overgrown. I believe the council have still been cutting the parks as people are still using them for their hour of exercise. “The cemeteries are also being used for people to get their daily exercise so I can’t really understand why they can’t also be maintained at present.
“People have got in contact saying it’s great we are offering to do this and, given the government is allowing gardeners to continue to work, we wanted to help where we could.”
But council chiefs have poured cold water on the idea, saying such maintenance is not currently considered essential under government guidelines.
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “While we appreciate greatly this kind offer of help, it was made clear at the start of the lockdown that grounds maintenance activities such as this were not considered to be an essential, lifeline service.
“If and when that guidance changes or the lockdown rules are amended, the council’s own in-house teams will be able to carry out these and other similar tasks.”
Although gardeners have not been cited as key workers they are amongst a group who have been given the green light to work as long as they practise safe social distancing measures.