P-04-602 Personalisation of Graves – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 17.11.14
SENT ON BEHALF OF TORFAEN GRAVES ACTION GROUP
Dear
Sir,
Thank you for your email & the attached letter from the
Minister. For clarity, we have listed below background information
and have been more specific, as requested.
For background, this issue came forward after Torfaen Council
decided to enforce a policy that had been in existence for many
years that had not been enforced previously. Grave personalisation
had been allowed and some parents were given verbal agreements to
site items. In May 2014 this changed. Based on verbal conversations
with a very small number of grave visitors (no formal complaints
received), the Officer decided to enforce the policy by posting
notices on graveyard entrances, giving a short period of time for
family to remove items. Many people are angry at this decision and
believe that the Council have been heartless because many of these
graves have been personalised without interference for over 22 yrs.
Can you imagine how hurt so many people were? Torfaen Council then
attended graves, stripped graves and sent items straight to
landfill, in doing so, breaching their own 28 day storage policy.
These issues are being addressed separately with TCBC and the
Ombudsman, but we thought it would give some background to the
reason for the petition.
We have discovered that councils in Wales have their own individual
policies and levels of intervention and enforcement. So what is
acceptable in 1 graveyard could be breaching rules just a couple of
miles down the road. This isn’t fair and equitable and should
be regularised throughout Wales.
So for clarity, the aim of the petition is :-
1. A “Cemetery Policy” be written and adopted by WG for
all of Wales and that each Council in Wales adhere to the WG
policy, to remove the inconsistencies and unfairness in the current
multiple policies.
2. That Welsh Government are mindful of the delicate nature of
personalisation of Graves, particularly Baby Graves.
3. To make the new policy up to date and current (solar lights, etc
were not available when many of these council policies were
written).