The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Waist-high grass at war graves uncut ‘to enhance biodiversity’
Dundee: Veteran shocked by level of maintenance at city’s Western Cemetery, as council says grass-cutting policy related ‘to memorial stabilisation’
A 93-year-old D-day veteran has hit out at Dundee City Council after being told “waist-high” grass at a cemetery containing war graves will be left uncut to “enhance the biodiversity”.
Stanley Mccoll, 93, went to the Western Cemetery on Perth Road to visit the grave of his grandfather, grandmother and two aunts. But when he arrived, he was shocked to find the grass in front of the memorial had grown to around two-feet in height.
Mr Mccoll said he was stunned to see the general condition of the cemetery, with areas between the graves left uncut and apparently neglected and gravestones overgrown by bushes and shrubs.
His son-in-law, Malcolm Macbain, who also lives locally, has called on the local authority to take action to tidy up the area, after discovering a number of First World War graves at the site.
He said: “I went along to have a look after my father-in-law told me about how bad a state the place had been left in. The grass has grown over some of the headstones and, in some places, it was even coming up to my belt buckle.
“It seems very disrespectful when we know there are First World War graves being left there among the grass.
“Why can’t the council just be honest and say they simply don’t have money to cut it?”
The family’s complaint comes just days after a Dundee dog walker said grass at a local green space had been allowed to grow so tall he could no longer see his pet in it.
Vincent Leonard said the area, near Menzieshill Wood, was the worst he had ever seen it after an extended period of ‘picture framing’ – a process whereby landscapers cut around the edges of the grassy area but not the middle.
It is understood that even under the council’s low-maintenance programme at Western Cemetery, the two major middle sections should be cut at least once every eight weeks.
A neighbourhood services environment manager told Mr Mccoll: “We agreed at the start of the grass cutting season to reduce the amount of grass cutting we would carry out in the Western to enhance the biodiversity and memorial stabilisation.
“There are two sections within the cemetery that we are trialling out this year but we are still cutting the areas next to the paths and roadside edges.”
dhealey@dctmedia.co.uk