Actions speak louder than words
On Saturday 7 June 2008 seven Farnham Town Councillors, together with friends and Council staff put words into action in West Street Cemetery to tackle the battle of grass cutting.
Recent weather patterns have created phenomenal growing conditions for grass and as such Farnham Town Council’s Grounds men are struggling to cut the grass to the Council’s and residents expectations.
We are currently cutting our 4 cemeteries on a 5 week cycle. It takes 5 grounds men thirteen working days to cut West Street Cemetery alone, so by the time they finish, it needs cutting again. With 3 other cemeteries to cut in rotation the grounds men are fighting a losing battle.
“The growth has been extraordinary in recent months and our normal pattern of cutting has simply not coped, last year we cut each cemetery 12 times. We started cutting in March this year and we are already on our fourth cut of the year, explained Kevin Tait, the Ground’s Manager.
Cllr Jill Hargreaves stated “We are determined to restore the cemeteries and create areas, in which members of the public will be able to take time out of their busy lives to reflect, whether they have relations buried in the cemetery or not”, “It is a huge task but we are determined to succeed”.
Cllr David Attfield explained “Burial rights up to this year have been purchased for one hundred years and the family are responsible for the upkeep of grave plots. However, many people have died or moved away and the graves have become sadly neglected, leaving the Town Council and its tax payers the increasing burden of maintaining them.
Cllr Carole Cockburn said“ We want to see every grave in our cemeteries treated with the greatest respect and maintained to the highest standard”, “We were extremely moved on Saturday to see so many forgotten memorials and we shall do all in our power to respect the memory of those people, whose family is no longer in the town”.
The Councillors and staff of Farnham Town Council would like to thank all those members of the public, who offered their help with the long term project.
The Council is currently reviewing its staffing levels, in order to tackle the current grass growing problem. Meanwhile the current grounds men are continuing to cut the grass as quickly as possible and will be in West Street the week commencing 9 June 2008.
Farnham Town Council is the Local Burial Authority and owns four cemeteries, Badshot Lea, Green Lane, Hale and West Street. The cemeteries cover over 100 acres of cemetery land and contain over 24,000 grave plots with 16,000 memorials.
The cemeteries are cut in rotation by a team 5 dedicated grounds persons, starting with Badshot Lea Cemetery which takes 2 working days to cut, Hale Cemetery 5 working days, Green Lane Cemetery 7 working days and West Street thirteen working over a four to six week cycle. On the completion of each cycle, the process starts again immediately.
The cost of operating the cemeteries is approximately £103,000 per annum to the local tax payer, irrespective of whether they use the cemeteries or not.
