Ornament ban for graves in Barwell
BEREAVED families are being banned from decorating graves at Barwell cemetery.
The parish council is sending out letters to people who have transgressed guidelines by placing fencing, fairy lights, stones or plants on the plots.
According to the rules for the Kirkby Road resting place, memorabilia of any kind is forbidden as it makes the cemetery look messy, provides problems for maintenance staff and is known to attract theft and vandalism.
As the parish council looks after the cemetery it can impose whatever regulations it likes but the crackdown on ornamentation, though common to many cemeteries, is likely to be unwelcome to some.
A notice from the council said: “It has been bought to the attention of Barwell Parish Council that a number of graves are contravening the guidelines of the cemetery management policy referring to the addition of picket fencing, stones, plants, lights or memora- bilia of any kind.
“The cemetery and parks recreation committee have agreed that grave owners who breach these regulations will be contacted within the next few weeks asking them to remove edgings, chippings or flora not permitted.”
Marking graves, especially those of children, with sentimental trimmings and trappings has grown in popularity in recent years.
However, most cemeteries have rules on acceptable decorations.
The delicate nature of the issue is not lost on parish and borough councillor Russ Roberts but he said some standardisation was essential to retain order.
He added: “In the past we have had all sorts of items put on graves and when you consider we only have two groundsmen who have to tend a huge area, not just the cemetery, if people are putting toys and other bits and bobs on graves then it makes it difficult for them to get around the graveyard to mow it.
“Then we get people coming into the graveyard stealing the items or van- dalising them, ripping them apart and throwing them everywhere. Obviously that is upsetting but we can’t take responsibility for that.
“A while ago down towards the bottom of the cemetery someone had started hanging baubles on trees and we received complaints about it. It’s finding the balance, what is nice for one person is not nice for another.”
According to the official Barwell Parish Council cemetery guidelines any “installation of new surrounds in any material is not permitted on graves or cremation plots.”
The guidelines say items may be removed by the without prior notice if they detract from the general tidiness of the cemetery.