This act ‘only adds to the pain of grieving families’
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By Monday morning, however, a dedicated team of volunteers, including Dunfermline South councillor Naz Anis- Miah, and a team from Fife Council, set to work cleaning off the paint.
Cllr Anis- Miah told the Press: “I was notified by a concerned constituent, Claire Swan, about the desecration of the Snowdrop Baby Memorial Garden at Dunfermline cemetery.
“I contacted Fife Council to report the vandalism and asked the residents to meet me at the cemetery after the morning school run.”
“We managed to clean a lot of it, however we were concerned about the gold lettering. The Fife Council team arrived with a special solution that removed the paint from the delicate areas.
“We then got some fresh flowers from Tesco and made it as nice as we could.
“Moments like this are what makes Dunfermline a great city when people come together for common good.
“Losing a child is enough to deal with. I just wish the parents didn’t have to see this.”
Claire described the vandalism on the baby memorials as “absolutely disgusting”.
“I got in touch with Naz on Sunday night and we decided to go to clean it up in the morning,” she said.
“We can’t treat babies with disrespect. I’ve lost a baby – she’s in Edinburgh – so I couldn’t leave this.”
It’s not the first time the Snowdrop Memorial Garden has been vandalised. A similar incident happened in 2021.
Neale Hanvey, MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, and his partner saw the vandalism for themselves on Sunday afternoon, and he brought it to the attention of the council and his counterpart in Dunfermline and West Fife, Douglas Chapman MP.
Mr Hanvey said: “I can’t imagine what would possess anyone to behave in such a callous way.
“The pain the families who’ve lost an infant have already experienced is unimaginable, but to see this would be unbearable.
“I hope anyone who can identify the culprit comes forward. This is inexcusable behaviour.”
Mr Chapman added: “Again we experience the behaviour of some nasty people – their actions go beyond what might be called ‘ mindless vandalism’.
“Losing a child at any age is a horrendous experience for a parent, but when it follows a pregnancy where your feelings of hope, excitement and love are dashed, then it becomes a very, very painful part of your life that stays with you forever.
“I don’t think the culprits in this case get that. Their behaviour only adds to the pain of the grieving families.”
Alan Paul, Fife Council’s head of property services, thanked everyone who helped in the clean- up and urged anyone with information on who may have been responsible to contact the police.
“This was a heartless and despicable crime,” he said. “The loss of a baby or child is devastating and to see these memorials tarnished and desecrated in this way will have been heartbreaking for the parents affected.”
Cllr Anis- Miah, meanwhile, is calling for better security measures to be put in place at the cemetery.
“It would be good to have some sort of CCTV installation, even at entrances,” he said. “We can’t have this type of behaviour in our city.”
He also thanked everyone who came to help with the clean- up.