A grave situation at cemetery

Paths in the Old Aisle Cemetery, in Kirkintilloch, are pockmarked with large potholes, while grassy areas have been churned up by heavy machinery.

One resident. who regularly visits the cemetery, said: “It’s getting to the point now when it’s nothing short of disrespectful for those who have departed and the people they have left behind.

“Surely it isn’t too much to ask that regular maintenance is carried out?

“It looks like nobody has been near the place for months.

“This shouldn’t be something that needs to be pointed out to the council - it’s something that should be done as a matter of course.”

The complaints come following controversy over East Dunbartonshire Council’s burial charges.

Earlier this year it was revealed that the £2,785 cost of buying a plot and interring a body was the most expensive in Scotland - compared with just £694 in the Western Isles.

The council’s own cemeteries officer branded the charges “absolutely ridiculous” when speaking to MSPs at a meeting at the Scottish Parliament.

At the council’s recent budget they were slashed by 25 per cent, but this only partially undoes recent increases - in the past three years they have been hiked first by 25 per cent, and then by a massive 50 per cent.

Another Kirkintilloch resident said: So the Old Aisle Cemetery is the place where we pay East Dunbartonshire Council a fortune to lay loved ones to rest?

“The neglect is disgraceful.”

Grace Irvine, the council’s director of neighbourhood services, told the Herald that the issue would be addressed.

She explained: “We are currently carrying out drainage investigation works within the Old Aisle Cemetery in Kirkintilloch and, once complete, a survey will be undertaken to establish any path repairs or upgrades required.

“The damage on some of the grass within the cemetery has been caused by tracked machinery and works will be carried out to reinstate these areas.”

She added: “We apologise for the disruption caused to relatives visiting the cemetery whilst this work is being carried out.”