Our tributes were treated like trash...
RELATIVES TO STAGE FURTHER PROTEST OVER REMOVAL OF GRAVESIDE ITEMS
GRIEVING relatives have organised a second protest after Kirklees Council removed ornaments and flowers from graves at a cemetery.
Many people were left heartbroken after decorations were removed from the graves of their loved ones at Hey Lane cemetery in Huddersfield.
The ‘unauthorised items’ were then left in plastic bags in the cemetery’s car park, where they will remain for four weeks for people to collect.
A protest was held at the site near Castle Hill on Sunday, with parents still grieving for their children among the large group of protesters.
A second protest is to be held in the town centre. A Facebook event has been launched titled: “Leave our lost loved ones graves alone,” with the action planned for 11am on Saturday, April 16. It has been arranged by one of the organisers of the previous action.
Several mourners who attended Sunday’s protest voiced their anger.
One woman, Katie Joyce, 28, said she visits the cemetery regularly as a source of comfort - she has three relatives buried there: her grandma, who died in 2016; her son Enzo, who died in 2018; and her brother, who died in September 2021.
Katie’s son Enzo was just four years old when he died of meningitis. Since he was buried, Katie and her family have used his grave as a way to feel close to him.
Katie, who lives in Linley, said: “Getting here that day and seeing my Enzo’s grave bare brought back the day we buried him. Everything I had brought him had been thrown to the side. We come here a lot to feel close to him and bring him birthday gifts, presents from the holidays we go on - all that had been taken away. And for me taking all that way makes me feel less like my family members are here, I feel like they’ve taken away the feeling I had that my loved ones were here.
“The things we had here were treated like trash, things that meant so much to us.”
Marcus Joyce, Katie’s brother, died on September 21, 2021, when a car collided with the motorcycle he was riding. To honour him, Katie wore a hoodie with his picture on to the protest, saying they were “so close to each other”.
“You can’t tell people how to grieve,” Katie added.
“Coming here and bringing things for Enzo and Marcus and my grandma is important for my mental health and how I deal with my grief. Where else can I go? There’s so much grief, how do I fit all that in one house?”
Many of the families have since added ornaments and flowers back to the graves of their relatives in protest. Things on the gravestone itself had been allowed to remain previously.
The council sent out letters on March 4 asking for people to remove ornaments and things within two weeks, or they would be removed and left in bags for four weeks for collection.
Colin Parr, strategic director for environment and climate change at Kirklees Council, previously told Yorkshire Live on Thursday March 24: “Kirklees Council was granted permission for the Hey Lane site to be used as a cemetery in 2012, with a condition of planning that the council must ensure the cemetery is in keeping with its surroundings, considering its setting within a rural environment as a natural lawned cemetery.”