Desecration fear over Utley cemetery lodge closure (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting TANEWS to 80360, or email
Desecration fear over Utley cemetery lodge closure
11:00am Tuesday 19th June 2012 in News
By Marc Meneaud, Aire Valley Chief Reporter
A damaged gravestone in the cemetery
Bradford councillors are to decide whether to close a cemetery lodge, despite major concerns the move will lead to increased desecration of headstones and thefts of toys and religious ornaments from graves.
The Council’s executive is set to rule on whether to shut Utley Cemetery’s office, which dates back to 1856, to save on operating costs and make a possible £100,000 by selling the building.
Senior officers are supporting its closure while campaigners raised a petition to keep it open following a spate of vandal attacks and thefts, some from children’s graves.
Charlie Bhowmick, who has led the campaign to prevent its closure, said: “There are graves there that are 150 years old and others which are more recent and headstones have been damaged by these awful people.
“There have been several items put out on children’s graves by families – angels and teddy bears and other toys. One man who we spoke to on Sunday said that there were some lads who were helping themselves to some of the toys. The man challenged them and they gave him verbal abuse.
“Why they do these sorts of things is beyond our imagination. We feel that, if they take this office away from this site, it will double the number of vandalism attacks and thefts.”
The retired planning officer, who collected 735 signatures on the petition, said he had had support from Bradford’s Keighley Central Labour Councillors, Abid Hussain and Khadim Hussain and Kaneez Akthar.
A report to be discussed by the executive at City Hall on Friday at 10.30am sets out three options: to close and sell the Utley cemetery lodge, keep the lodge office operational or let the property to a third party.
The report states that the Council will have to pay £44,823 in maintenance costs to keep the building open. Its preferred option is to close and sell the lodge and relocate staff to the former Library Annexe in Keighley.
The report points out that the majority of the district’s 24 cemeteries do not have an on-site office.
Comments(2)
ministry_of_justice
says...
8:39am Wed 20 Jun 12
The perpetrators are youths living local to the area and their actions a symbol of the respect for the society they live within.This is just another demonstration of the contempt they demonstrate on a daily basis.A lot of parks in Keighley are becoming no go areas late at night.I walk my dog around the area and regular receive abuse/inflammatory comments regarding my pet, whose very existence they object to.
I am sure that damage to a cemetery in Leeds, which included the London suicide bomber, was 'retaliatory' in response to countywide desecration of these ancient historic monuments.
Its difficult to maintain a lodge in the current climate, I understand that.We do however have an army of Park Wardens on motorbikes who may help to curb the problem if they spent less time meeting up for a cup of tea and a roll up.Police foot patrols would also yield results, since many drug deals are taking place in vehicles which drive into the cemetery because they know they can operate from the safety of their vehicle in an unpoliced haven.
Banning cars from exiting the site (without disabled badge) would be a help.Fitting covert CCTV would be much cheaper and yield better results than maintaining the lodge.It would help Police identify,what must be a hard core of offenders.Signs around the cemetery could inform residents and urge them to report incidents/concerns to police, as well as acting as a mild deterrent.Police could give more priority to increasing problem.
With councils cash strapped, unless this issue is tackled quickly and comprehensively,dest
ruction/defacement of graves will become more widespread and visually apparent.Their is nothing more likely to inflame communities more than desecrating the monument to their loved ones,and these individuals understand this.It is vital to nip,this very current problem,in the bud and let the people responsible feel the full force of the law.
fedupkeighley says...
12:16pm Tue 19 Jun 12