Graveyard upkeep a “bone of contention”, says Offaly councillor

A framework on how the upkeep of public graveyards in Offaly could be rolled out across the county was called for by several councillors recently.
Raising the issue at the June meeting of the Birr Municipal District, Cllr John Clendennen said the graveyards were “another bone of contention” and an issue that comes up every year “in relation to the standard” at which they were maintained.
“We have already seen an expectation amongst the community that is different to the level of what is being engaged [by contractors[,” he said. According to the Fine Gael councillor, at many public graveyards there was previously an established high standard with a full time caretaker. “However, we need to put a plan in place now on how we can work with communities to complement the contracting [undertaken on behalf of the local authority] at the graveyards. I think if this is rolled out, there would be a role for communities and see it can be enhanced to a certain level. I feel it's something that we need to look at.”
Cllr Peter Ormond supported what Cllr Clendennen said about graveyards and that “standards that had been set out” were different in areas. The Fianna Fail councillor suggested that it might be “no harm” as a municipal district to formulate a policy document on it going forward”. “We have so many different mixes in terms of the work that's expected in places,” he continued.
“This is a contentious issue, in terms that people are very passionate about their graveyards and their upkeep. I think it's something we need to get right and work on this by getting a framework so that all these different aspects get into it going forward,” he stated.
Cllr John Leahy, Cathaoirleach of Birr Municipal District, is also the chair of the Environment SPC and in reply to the councillors' queries, he said that Mary Hussey, would be attending one of the SPC meetings shortly to “get the combination on this issue right” and he would hope to have it on the July meeting's agenda.
John Mitchell, Senior Engineer, said he would speak to the councillors further on this and “prioritise this going forward”.
Meanwhile, a local group 'Clonoghill Clean up Crew' said they would be meeting soon to finalise their proposal for CCTV in both graveyards as they continue to be plagued by rubbish being left behind.