Cemetery row as widower is ready to move his wife’s ashes
robin.jenkins@reachplc.com
AGRIEVING widower plans to exhume his wife’s ashes due to what he says is the “appalling” state of Cheltenham’s cemetery.
John Payne is unhappy with long grass on and around graves at the borough council-managed Bouncers Lane site, and other mourners are angry about the same issue. They have called for the authority to take action to keep the sensitive site in a tidier condition.
Bosses at the council insist they are doing their best, with the Covid-19 pandemic leaving them with fewer staff available to do the work.
But mourners say this is no excuse and say the state of the cemetery had been getting worse for several months before the outbreak took hold.
Overgrown areas include the one where Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones is buried.
Mr Payne, a councillor who represents Prestbury on the borough council, lost his wife Janet in August last year when she died from a heart attack at the age of 72.
The couple had celebrated being married for 50 years just four months before and Mr Payne was devastated.
Now he feels the council is letting him and others like him down by not cutting the grass often enough in several areas of the cemetery, including where he has his wife’s ashes buried by her headstone.
He said: “I have instructed my undertakers to begin the long process to allow Janet’s ashes to be exhumed. This may sound irrational, but when you have such a strong bond with a person, even if that person is dead you still want the best, and Cheltenham Borough Council is not providing the best.”
He added: “One or two of us are concerned that the cemetery is in an absolutely appalling state.
“When you consider that the charges are the seventh highest in the country, it is quite shocking.”
Mr Payne, who is also chairman of Prestbury Parish Council, said he took great comfort from ‘talking’ to his wife at her grave, going two or three times a week before lockdown.
He said that when he was able to visit the site more often again when restrictions were eased, the grass at the grave was so long he could hardly see it and he had to cut it himself.
He said: “It’s beyond a joke. If you look around at the management of the cemetery, it’s diabolical.”
The site is big and staff had been affected by the pandemic, he conceded, but he felt those were not good excuses. He believed that allowing the grass to grow long on so much of the cemetery had left the council facing a mammoth task.
“The lines of the headstones in some parts are all over the place and, at the moment, it’s overgrown. It’s almost a wasteland,” he said.
The 73-year-old added: “Janet was my life and the place where she is, is like a scrub field. It’s awful.”
Tracey Williams of Ladysmith Road, just off Bouncers Lane, is also angry with the council about the long grass and weeds around graves at the site.
She regularly visits the grave of her parents, Beryl and Pete Webb and backed Mr Payne’s view that maintenance levels had dropped in recent months - including before the pandemic.
“I was devastated to see the grass so high. I spotted two men working there so asked about cutting the grass,” she said. “They said they are told to cut only key areas. How dare anyone say only certain places are key?
“Surely my mum and dad’s little garden is key along with thousands of others buried there.”
She added that she used her hands and a strimmer to tidy up the plot and said: “Yes, they are short staffed but they can’t use social distancing as an excuse.”
Regarding Mr Payne’s claim that the cemetery charges are the seventh highest in the UK, a Cheltenham Borough Council spokesman said: “In terms of our ranking in the country, there are differing ranking reports. We benchmark our services with other providers and believe we offer competitive services to all who choose to use them.”
Councillor Chris Coleman (LD, St Mark’s), the authority’s cabinet member for clean and green environment, said: “Our priority has been to keep offering cremations as safely as possible during this difficult time for bereaved families. We understand that some may view part of the grounds with longer grass as untidy.
“However, due to the Covid-19 situation we have had to re-prioritise our services and maintenance schedule, particularly as around half of our staff had to be sent home to isolate. The majority of the remaining staff are having to work in the crematorium to help with funerals.
“We are working on the grounds but this is taking much longer as you would expect with a minimal team. We will shortly be seeking temporary labour to support the grounds team.
“Rest assured, we are working on the issue and are making improvements as fast as we can. Our team who have gone far above and beyond at an extraordinarily challenging time. The vast majority of residents are, I’m certain, very grateful for this.”