Overcrowding at Carnwath Cemetery

AN UNDERTAKER expressed shock that more burials are going to be ''squeezed'' into a Clydesdale cemetery he feels is already full to capacity.

The digging up of yet more of the landscaped areas within Carnwath Cemetery to provide more room for graves came as a surprise to veteran Carstairs-based funeral director Ian Brown.

Ian last year made public his professional concern that Carnwath Cemetery was fast running out of space for fresh burials.

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His intitial approach to the Gazette last year was prompted by South Lanarkshire Council digging up shrubs, bushes and trees in landscaped areas in the existing cemetery to make more room for additional burials.

At the time South Lanarkshire Council stated that it had identified an adjoining field for a possible extension.

The council said it would have to await ground testing by its experts and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to ensure the land was suitable and not liable to flooding.

This testing was duly carried out and recently the council formally granted itself planning permission to create the extension.

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Ian told the Gazette this week: "I thought that meant that the council could go ahead with the extension at last but we noticed two weeks ago a gang of workers digging up yet more landscaped areas in order to fit yet more graves onto the site."

A council spokeswoman couldn't give the Gazette a precise timetable for the start of work on the extension.

She said: "Negotiations are ongoing for the purchase of the field with the owners and, when complete, work will begin on the infrastructure of the cemetery extension.

"Meantime, we continue to make suitable ground available within the existing cemetery for current use."

For more information on this story, pick up a copy of this week's Gazette which is in the shops now, priced 48p.

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