Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting

Thursday 5th August 2021

Zoom Meeting - Id 4601800273

Agenda

1. Croft Cemetery Gravestone Maintenance - Cllr Dickson-Green

2. Equipment for Handyman - Clerk update

Minutes of Extraordinary Meeting of the Parish

Council - Thursday 5th August 2021 

Meeting held on open Zoom - 7.00pm

Councillors Present: Cllr Dickson-Green, Cllr Wilkinson, Cllr Moore, Cllr Kirkbride, Cllr Brebner, Cllr Tilley, Cllr Irving

In attendance: Clerk

1. Apologies: Cllr Riley

2. Repairs to Monuments

Cllr Dickson-Green noted that details of the proposed repairs to the monuments in The Croft and St. Cuthbert's Cemeteries had been circulated to all councillors for review and invited questions. He noted that the local authority and the research done online had suggested that memorials should not be flattened unless as a last resort. 

Cllr Kirkbride queried the requirement of the Parish to contact family members before work was done on the monuments. The Clerk noted that due ro the age of some of the graves as well as the lack of records kept for ownership of the plots, it would be extremely difficult to identify the owners of the plots. In addition they could only be asked to contribute towards the safety of the monuments even if they are found. To deal with this, the affected graves had had notification markers on them for a number of months as part of the repair process to notify anyone who needed to get in touch - and this had been publicised online on the website and social media as well. While the monuments were owned by the families, the responsibility for health and safety of the site was down to the Parish Council. Any monuments repaired would be done by qualified memorial masons to ensure no problems for the owners. New processes had been put in place with the changes to The Croft cemetery fee structure to ensure that it would be easier in future to identify owners of the relevant memorials and contact them. 

The question of the work to be done on the memorials was raised. It was noted by the Clerk that the quotes received were to make the memorials safe - though in many cases this would not be significantly different to a repair given the nature of the work. 

The question of the safety checks at St. Cuthbert's was also raised and discussed. It was agreed that due to the cost implications this would be undertaken in the following year. 

Cllr Tilley stated that he felt that the Parish had a moral obligation to ensure the memorials were maintained in good order. 

The motion accepted the quoted for making safe the memorials was proposed by Cllr Dickson-Green, seconded by Cllr Irving and agred unanimously.

3. Cost of Barrow for Village Handyman

The Clerk noted that this was slightly higher than had been previously discussed at the July meeting with a final cost of £962.09.

It was unanimously agreed to proceed with the purchase. 

The meeting closed at 7.32pm.