Sunday, June 26, 2011

Nairn Cemetery – should the local authority do more?

This observer recently went up to have a look at the cemetery as a result of a complaint from a regular reader of this blog. It was suggested to the Gurn that the newer part of the cemetery is kept very well the older areas, including those where folk have been buried in the last twenty to thirty years are not kept as well as they used to be.


It seems the newer area is better suited to ride-on mowers and strimmers with the edges of the lawns being level with the paths while the older parts with their higher edges do not fare so well these days. The mowers seem to have scalped some areas badly and weeds have come back in place of grass, the wheels of the mowers have also damaged the grass edges in places. Weed killer has been used but when the weeds reach a certain height the dead ones look just as bad as similar living ones. You can kill the weeds yes but someone has to scrape them up to make a good job of it. This observer remembers seeing a council employee with a small mountfield style mower cutting in-between graves some years ago. It could be that this still happens in some parts of the cemetery but unfortunately this very special part of Nairn looks as though it could do with a few more man hours each week to retain it in a better condition. Maybe cutbacks are the culprit here but surely the cemetery deserves the highest standard of care and maintenance. Perhaps our councillors might like to ask themselves if adequate provision is being made for the upkeep of the cemetery?






3 comments:

Graisg said...

Thanks for the two anon comments, trying to find out more about the cutting/maintenace regime at the Cemetery and who is responsible etc.

Not interesting in having a go at the rank and file however, see this as a management issue.

The next generation said...

Reading between the lines of your comment, Graisg, there is obviously some question about who is carrying out the work.

To me, as one who has also visited the cemetery recently and been disturbed at the level of maintenance and neglect throughout, I am not interested in 'who' is actually doing the work, but in the quality and level of work being done. As your final sentence in your article says, is adequate provision being made? Is enough time and manpower available?

Ealan-Donan-MacRath said...

Why is that nothing gets done until somebody complains. All Graveyards should be kept to a certain level of standard that is respectacle. To let it go this far iam sorry is not fair. Nobody wants to complain to anybody we just ask please can it be kept neet and tidy as out of respect.