IT appears that The Burials and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 passed unnoticed by councils and public alike (“Islanders face deadly serious issue … too few burial plots, The Herald, June 19).
The act seeks to address the issues faced on Mull. Burial lairs in Scotland were sold “in perpetuity”. The 2016 Act limits the time frame to 25 years with a possible extension for another ten. The council can then repackage the contents of the grave and rebury then at a greater depth. The “restored lair” is then available to be resold by the council. We buy a grave on a short-term rental.
Borders Council charges £1,034 for a two-space burial lair. Using a generous 4ft x10ft area for a grave, this amounts to £1,126,000 per acre. Farmland in the Borders is available for £127,000 per acre: a nice little earner for the local authority.
There is controversy in Berwickshire where Borders Council has flattened numerous gravestones judged to be a public danger. The six-figure settlement to the family of the young boy killed by a falling gravestone in Craigton Cemetery in Glasgow is a poignant reminder of this clear and present danger. Councils retain ownership of the ground. They oversee the work of the monumental masons who erect the monuments.
The role of the family is to lay flowers and pay the bills. Few of these headstones are a danger because of failure in construction. With time, the ground in a cemetery shifts and subsides. This makes the headstone move out of vertical and in danger of falling.
Our cemeteries play an important role in our lives. They are the places where we remember our loved ones. They record out history as a people and as a nation. Ninety million folk worldwide boast of Scots in their ancestry. They come to Scotland to see the tangible evidence of that heritage. The evidence is on the lichen covered names marking the last resting place of ancestors across the country.
Government and councils need to respect our cemeteries, their emotional and historic significance. Death, like taxes, is one of life’s certainties. It should not be another profit centre for local government.
John Black,
6 Woodhollow House,
Helensburgh.
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