Cemetery left overgrown to ‘enhance biodiversity’
● First World War graves covered by up to 2ft of grass
Grass is growing wild at a city cemetery – in a council initiative to “enhance the biodiversity”.
D-day veteran Stanley Mccoll, 93, was shocked to see the vegetation 2ft high around the grave of his grandfather, grandmother and two aunts at Western Cemetery on Perth Road.
Dundee City Council has said it is part of a deliberate low maintenance programme to help wildlife thrive.
But Mr Mccoll’s son-in-law Malcolm Macbain said: “Why can’t the council just be honest and say they simply don’t have money to cut it?”
He said the areas between the graves had been left uncut and apparently neglected, and that gravestones had become overgrown by bushes and shrubs.
His son-in-law, Malcolm Macbain, who also lives locally, has called on the 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 World War One graves being left there among the grass.”
The family’s complaint comes just days after a dog walker in Dundee said grass at a local green space had been allowed to grow so tall that he could no longer find 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.”