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HARRY Sykes inspecting the neglect at Boarshaw Cemetery.
HARRY Sykes inspecting the neglect at Boarshaw Cemetery.

One-man cemetery campaign leads to borough wide action

Emma Mountford
26/ 1/2006

A ONE man campaign to improve a local cemetery has taken a giant step forward.

For five years Harry Sykes of Alkrington Green has been fighting for better standards of maintenance at Boarshaw Cemetery and last week his complaints were finally addressed as the council has agreed to look into the problem.

Mr Sykes, whose mother and wife are both buried at the Boarshaw graveyard, visits the cemetery at least once a week but believes more should be done to ensure it is kept in good condition.

At a council meeting in Rochdale last week Mr Sykes said: "I don't think the cemetery is being kept at an acceptable standard with an attention to detail."

Mr Sykes has been campaigning for the broken kerb stones to be replaced, the grass around the headstones to be strimmed, knocked down headstones to be removed, potholes to be filled in, more detailed grass cutting and greater supervision of work carried out at the cemetery.

He said: "I am very concerned about the state of the cemetery but I am glad they have decided to look into what I was saying at the meeting."

Councillor Thomas Bailey and councillor Metcalfe, portfolio holder responsible for cemeteries, both visited Boarshaw graveyard before the meeting of the council's environmental services overview and scrutiny commitee.

The outcome is that a special trouble-shooting council sub-committee will now be formed to care for the borough's cemeteries after members of the overview and scrutiny commitee heard Mr Sykes's complaints.

Councillor Ian Robertson is also setting up a friends of Boarshaw Cemetery group to hopefully address some of the complaints.

He said: "At the meeting I addressed the commitee and said I believed the way forward was to recognise that visitors were the most important single group concerned with the cemetery and visitors needed to have a voice. And the way for that to happen was for a friends group to get together and to have an ongoing dialogue with officers resonsible for the day to day operations of the cemetery."

Councillor Bailey said at the meeting that the council will help the friends group in anyway it could. Councillor Robertson is now appealing for residents to contact him on 0161 653 3539 if they are interested in becoming a friend.


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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   My brother Stephen Doubleday is buried at Boarshaw Cemetery 2003. I visited the cemetery last July taking flowers I had not been able to afford a headstone but remembered the stone number of the grave. I searched for almost an hour to find the stone by then I had forgotted the number some visitors to the cemetery helped me on my search. We found that grass had grown over the stones and been mowed over so this was quiet a task. I was so upset I just cried as I had to return to Atlanta the next day. Speaking to the Cemetery caretaker via telephone he gave me the number of my brothers grave and a neighbour had place artificial roses on the grave site (which I did recall) that spot. There were numerous stones like this impossible to locate your loved ones grave. And what upsets me most I am in Atlanta and freinds of my brothers cannot spent the day trying to find the grave. I do hope that some action is taken in this and other areas of the cemetery. My mother and father also rest at Boarshaw cemetery. I always found it to be a very well kept cemetery until July 2004. Sincerely, Barbara Cunningham
Barbara Cunningham, Atlanta, Georgia. USA
18/02/2006 at 23:03
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