gravepix at ukgraves.info

A further update, 8 May 2005:
I find it quite intriguing, even annoying, that no reply is forthcoming from the council.
I have just sent this email:

Dear Sirs,

I forward below for your attention my email of 30 April 2005.

I have no doubt that this is merely an oversight on your part, but I can find no trace in my inbox of a reply to my questions. 
I should be most grateful to hear any response from you


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alan
Date: Apr 30, 2005 10:38 AM
Subject: Newtown Road Cemetery
To: xxxxxx
Cc: xxxxxx

Dear Sirs,

I corresponded with a gentleman in your department in September 2004 regarding the sorry situation regarding Newtown Road 
Cemetery, following comments I made on my influential website, www.ukgraves.info, and the fact that this beautiful cemetery 
has now been closed to the public for at least 4 years.


The understanding I was left with following that correspondence was that an order had been received from the Oxford Diocese 
to "repair and make safe the Cemetery, which is due to start in the Autumn months of this year".  While I don't pass the 
cemetery daily, I certainly do pass it often enough to have noted that apparently there is no change, no works going on, 
and the cemetery remains closed.

I have added further comments about this situation to my website and would be most interested to hear the council's reaction.  
The relevant page at the site is http://www.ukgraves.info/newburymail.asp and my latest comments are given in red.

I wonder how long this public site shall remain inaccessible to both interested members of the public as well as relatives 
of the deceased, and what is being done about it?

Regards,

Alan 
For www.ukgraves.info

A further update, 13 May 2005:
I am amazed, saddened, shocked, disheartened and incredulous at the reply I have now received to my email, in particular the section I have highlighted in red. I can attribute nothing less than gross inefficiency on the part of the Council in all of this.

Dear -,

Thank you for your e-mail below and to clarify the situation the Diocese did not issue an order, we had informed 
them of our intentions having had the cemetery passed to us in a very neglected and poor condition that resulted 
in Health and Safety issues for public access. The correspondence in this matter with the Diocese included such 
things as experts checking for rare lichens on site took some two years although the re-build and stabalisation 
of some of the infrastructure was carried out in the meantime to some groundwork, brick and flint walling and 
tree management. The general state of the cemetery was up to six feet high in brambles, weeds, self seeded 
trees and grasses all of which have been brought under control with money, time and patience over the last 
three years.

The further works mostly to ground safety is estimated to take a further two years; 
relatives who wish to visit a grave can do so by arranging a Council Officer escort for safety.

This has been and still is a major undertaking for resources and money.

Yours faithfully,

I now wash my hands of this matter, in disgust.

Yet another update, 14 August 2005
I've received a number of emails in response to my comments on this matter, Newbury Newtown Road Cemetery, so, notwithstanding my having washed my hands of the matter, as stated just above, I decided to drop another line to Newbury Town Council, further expressing my dismay at an apparent ongoing lack of works going on at the cemetery, and its continuing closure, and questioning how such a lengthy closure can be justified. In reply I received an excellent and very explanatory reply from Mr Graham Hunt, Chief Executive Officer of the council, which I reproduce here in its entirety:

Dear Mr ---

I too am disappointed at the slow progress being made with regard to making Newtown Road Cemetery fully accessible to the public, 
without a prior appointment.  I am also disappointed that your web-site suggests in places that the cemetery is “inaccessible” 
when anyone can arrange access by simply phoning this Council on 01635 35486.  Many people do this and have access as required.

You have previously been told of the history of the site by members of the Services Team.  You probably know more than I do 
about the health and safety issues and what some see as an over-reaction by burial authorities to the legal cases involving 
injury and even death from unstable grave monuments.  As a Town Council, we have a responsibility to do all that we can 
to protect the safety of the public and to minimise the risk of expensive claims on public money.  This is complicated by 
the fact that there is no official guidance in existence on action that needs to be taken, so many burial authorities are 
not carrying out any work until that guidance exists, in case what they do is subsequently found to be incorrect.  
I understand from the Association of Burial Authorities that such guidance is now drafted and we are keen to see it 
formally published.

As a Town Council, we also have a responsibility to maintain our open spaces which we do throughout Newbury with a 
lot of success.  We suffer repeated vandalism and our limited resources in the Services Team who can do such work 
(about three quarters of an odd job man) are heavily involved in replanting flower beds, fixing vandalised 
playgrounds and the like throughout the town.

Our budget for Newtown Road Cemetery has been set by the council at £10,000 a year for a number of years.  There 
is obviously no income from this cemetery – that has long been spent by previous authorities with responsibility 
for the cemetery in the past.  The £10,000 is enough for keeping the listed brick and flint wall in as good repair 
as possible – it has become very susceptible to frost damage - plus keep on top of the vegetation.  The most recent 
wall repair bill was £1,995.  Some kind person has recently crashed into the wall opposite Priory Road.  The 
quotations to repair this are in excess of £8,000 alone, though we hope that most of this will be covered by insurance.  
There have recently been some major tree works throughout the cemetery at a cost of £8,500.  
We have also carried out some vegetation clearance in readiness for top-soil in-filling of the most dangerous 
areas.  But it takes considerable time and effort to manage such ongoing repairs and maintenance in a conservation 
area before we start looking at the grave monument repairs required from a health and safety viewpoint.

It was us who asked the Diocese of Oxford for a faculty to carry out required repairs, and it is us who then 
set the time scale.  The budget round last year had an initial request for a substantial increase in the 
Newtown Road cemetery allocation, because it is known that ongoing flat-funding is not sufficient to allow full 
re-opening of the cemetery.  But this year, due to a number of other costs over which we had no control (insurance, 
rates, pension payments and the like) and a political will to minimise any overall increase, the budget was restrained.  
As a parish council we only collect £62.06 on average from each household per year; £1.20p a week per household does 
not go far in providing for all the services that we provide to the residents of Newbury.  As the person 
responsible for providing the services I would love that amount to be much higher, but as a rate payer, like you, 
I understand the political pressures that put constraints on how much such taxes can be increased. 

Three initiatives have recently been started that give me some hope.  One is the use of developer contributions 
to provide additional funding for Newtown Road cemetery.  The main hope was the redevelopment of the adjacent 
hospital site.  Also, for every development close to the cemetery I now make a request for specific funds for 
improvements to the Cemetery.  Unfortunately, as I understand it, all requests have so far been rejected by West 
Berkshire Council planning department, but I will not give up.  Secondly, I have recently instructed a member of 
staff to start investigating the availability of specific grants.  Perhaps this is an area in which you could 
help – as I know that Heritage Funding is often only allocated to cemeteries that have some kind of Friends group.  
Newtown Road cemetery does not have such a group that I am aware of.  Perhaps some of your correspondents who 
are querying progress would like to create one? We would love to work with such a group to enable an appropriate 
grant to be applied for.  Finally, the Services Team are now drawing up three year Service Plans to encourage 
proactive work on each area of service.  As explained above, a lot of our work is reactive, and it takes effort 
to make the time for proactive work.  The Newtown Road Service Plan is eighth in our current list of priorities, 
based on the overall outcome benefit for residents of Newbury.

I will in the short term get the notices on the Cemetery updated, so that fuller explanation of the current 
situation is given to any passer-by.

Thank you for your continued interest;  I hope that your concerns and negative pronouncements can be channelled into 
positive enthusiasm for finding a way to help us to progress.  I would hope that if any of this response is 
published on your web-site, it is published in full.

I would be very happy to personally escort you round the Cemetery so you can take as many photos as you would 
like. I would also be very happy to discuss more detail, face to face, on any or all of the above.  Please call 
me to arrange a suitable appointment, holidays permitting.

Regards

Graham Hunt
Chief Executive Officer
Newbury Town Council

This is an excellent and very full and worthwhile response from Mr Hunt, and explains a lot. I can sympathise with the council.

I may very well, in due course, take up Mr Hunt's offer to escort me around the cemetery as, photography for this site or not, it is a place I feel I would very much like to visit.