Daughter’s anger after dad’s Hawkesbury grave is flooded

[dutchman]

A daughter was left distraught after her father’s grave was flooded in the weekend’s storms.



Sam Beeres paid a visit to her father John Murray’s resting place yesterday at Lentons Lane cemetery, in Hawkesbury, only to find it submerged in six inches of muddy water.

Sam, 36, who lives in Bedworth , said it was the second time the grave had flooded this month.

She said: “We put some sandbags down a couple of weeks ago but you can’t even see them now.

“The cemetery ground really dips around my dad’s grave and know everything we had put on the grave is damaged.

“Once your loved ones have passed away it is the only place you can go (to pay your respects).

“We spoke to some people who told us it was the same there last year. The council need to do something – I’ve bought the plots next to my dad’s grave but if I drop down dead I don’t want to be buried in a river.

“I know it is extreme weather but they are taking people’s money for the cemetery.”

[dutchman]

Petition calling for council action over flooded Hawkesbury cemetery



A petition has been set up calling on the council to try and solve the problems at a flood-hit cemetery in Coventry.

A number of families have been unable to visit loved ones’ graves – or seen them disappear under water – at Lentons Lane cemetery, in Hawkesbury, following the weekend’s storms, as the Telegraph reported earlier this week.

And now a petition has been created calling on the city council, which runs the cemetery to put in adequate draining to stop the same thing happening in the future.

The petition has already collected more than 350 signatures within a couple of days.

A council spokesman told the Telegraph that they were aware of the problem at Lentons Lane.

He said the council was now conducting a survey to look at possible solutions for the issue.

One comment on the petition read: “Seeing your loved one’s grave is heartbreaking.

“We have not been this week to visit my nan’s grave as it is to distressing seeing her grave like that. The council charge enough for the plots and have enough petty rules about the graves – they should therefore provide a service that is urgently required.”

One person even suggested the cemetery has had problems with flooding for as long as 12 years.

Melville Smith, whose father Thomas was laid to rest at the cemetery six months ago, said: “It’s a disgrace up there – I’ve not been able to visit his grave since Christmas.

“It looks like a flood plain, yet there are putting more graves in. The council needs to do something about it.”

To sign the petition visit http://www.ipetitions.com and search for Lenton’s Lane.

[dutchman]

City council put forward £2million plan to improve flood-hit Coventry cemetery

Council chiefs have announced £2million plans to improve and extend a Coventry cemetery which has been plagued by flooding.

The scheme will see a new entrance at Lenton’s Lane cemetery, in Hawkesbury, as well as new drainage and a central building being constructed over the next few years.

Council officers say the upgrade is necessary as the city is starting to run low on burial space at its six cemeteries: Canley, London Road, Walsgrave, St Paul’s Windmill Road and Lenton’s Lane.

The project, which will be done in two stages with the new entrance seeing traffic enter the cemetery off Shilton Lane, comes after a number of families contacted the Telegraph this winter saying that their loved ones’ graves were lost under floodwater and mud as the rains poured throughout January and February.

Among them was Sam Beeres, of Bedworth, whose father’s grave was submerged under six inches of water and the 36-year-old and her family set up a petition calling for the city council to solve the drainage problems.

More than 1,800 people have now backed the petition despite Coventry City Council sending tankers to pump the floodwater away.

Graham Hood, the city council’s head of streetpride and green spaces, said: “We are running out of burial space in Coventry - we have about four years of grave space left and we want to maintain enough space for the community and citizens of Coventry.

“Our ultimate plan is to extend Lenton’s Lane cemetery which will provide about 30 years of space.

“So our scheme for Lenton’s Lane, which will cost just over £2m, will be done in two phases. The first will start in late June and run through until April next year.

“This will see a new entrance constructed and a new building which will provide wash facilities and toilets. There will also be new car parking facilities and landscaping.

“In the next few years our intention is then to extend the cemetery and put in new drainage and road ways.

“This will make a big difference and will support the new burial space.”

Of the cash needed for the scheme, £1million makes up part of the council’s 2014/15 budget plans, which will be discussed on Tuesday. To sign the petition visit http://www.ipetitions.com and search for ‘Add drainage system to Lenton’s Lane Cemetery’.

[dutchman]

Lentons Lane Cemetery flooding leaves families horrified and graves underwater



Horrified families have called for immediate action after the graves of loved ones were left underwater at a Coventry cemetery following recent heavy rain.

Scores of burial plots at Lentons Lane Cemetery, in the north of the city, have been submerged by several inches of flood water and sodden ground in the surrounding area has been churned up by footmarks and vehicle tracks.

It is the latest problem in a long-running series of flooding issues which families say have left them heartbroken and traumatised.

Coventry City Council has repeatedly pledged to fix the flooding issues, and dedicated £2million to improving cemeteries in the city back in 2014. But the Telegraph later revealed that just £25,000 of that money had been spent to tackle the flooding issue - 1.25 per cent of the total funding.

A petition set up calling on the council to take action has now been launched and reached almost 1,000 signatures in less than 24 hours after being set up.

Richard Hambridge, from Tile Hill, set up the petition. He has several relatives buried at the cemetery and said the condition of the site has left him too upset to visit.

The 28-year-old hotel worker said: “It was the anniversary of my grandfather’s death recently and a few family members went to visit. Once I saw the photos I said I couldn’t visit because I don’t want to see the site was in that condition.

“We’re horrified, it’s really distressing for anybody to see that sort of scene.

“My nan, who is in her 70s, can’t even get up there to visit her husband’s grave, because it’s underwater.”

Mr Hambridge also hit out at the allocation of council funding which saw upgrades to the car park and toilets on site - but little improvement to the drainage issues.

He added: “One person there couldn’t even find the grave of a family member recently buried because it was underwater.

“There was a man in his car crying his eyes out because he was that traumatised by it.”

Primary school worker David Seale, from Bell Green, was also left upset by the state of the cemetery where his parents are buried.

The 43-year-old said: “My mum passed away two years ago and my dad four years ago. It’s been like that ever since my dad was buried there, but I’ve never seen it as bad as this.

“I was walking in ankle deep mud. It’s disheartening when you go up there and see it like that. It looks like a battlefield from the First World War.

“People go up there to deal with loss and bereavement, we can’t do that when it looks like this.”

Andrew Walster, the council’s assistant director for green space, said he believed improvements had been made to the flooding problems in recent years, but admitted it was unlikely there would ever be able to fix the issues entirely.

He said: “We apologise that the site is not in the condition we want and expect it to be in, we’ll continue to do our best to improve the situation and we thank families for their patience while we’re working on that.

“It’s more of a technical issue than a money issue as this service is self-funding, but we don’t have an endless pot of money.

“The clay at the site causes the problem. When they make a canal they do it by using clay as a base, we’ve effectively got a canal base under there.

“We’ll continue to investigate pumping, drainage and raising levels over the next few years. But I don’t think we can give a commitment that we will stop any flooding on that site again.

“We have had unprecedented wet weather recently and, even with the world’s best drainage system, we would have struggled to keep it in a condition people want to see when they visit.”

The petition calling for action to address the flooding can be found here.

[rebbonk]

I don't believe that land was ever suitable for this purpose. Many locals knew the issues with it, but apparently the council refused to listen to those that knew better. - Sound familiar?

[dutchman]

Coventry couple tell of heartbreak of arriving for funeral of baby to find grave not dug



As heartbroken Kacey Bromell and Simon Gregory sheltered from the rain and gathered the strength needed for their baby daughter’s funeral, an ashen-faced relative ran over and broke the terrible news.

The plot for little Maggie-Mai, who was only 24 hours old when she died, had still not been dug.

The devastated couple and 30 mourners gathered round the ground that was to be the baby’s last resting place and waited.

Then they watched as two grave diggers spent 20 minutes preparing the plot at Lenton’s Lane Cemetery, Coventry.

That error occurred in December 2013 and Coventry City Council, which runs the site, apologised in writing.

But Kacey and binman Simon, aged 27, say the misery has continued, with Maggie-Mai’s grave frequently submerged by floodwater.

It has, says Kacey, been under dirty water for close to a month.

Teddies and plaques she has placed at the burial site have been washed away, or left sodden.

And Kacey and Simon, from Wyken, are not alone. A petition calling for action to end the flooding blight gained 1,000 signatures in just 24 hours.

The petition was organised by Richard Hambridge, from Tile Hill, whose grandfather is buried at the cemetery.

For Kacey, the quagmire conditions at Lenton’s Lane bring back flashbacks of the shambles surrounding her daughter’s funeral.

“It was raining heavily and my mum came over with the news they had not dug the grave,” she recalled. “That is THE most important thing to do. I watched them dig for 20 to 30 minutes. It was awful, I was numb.”

Kacey, who has a one-year-old daughter, added: “Now I can’t even visit the grave, I can’t put anything on it. I just want it sorted.”

A spokesman for Coventry City Council said: “We did send a letter to Miss Bromell to apologise and to waive fees for the burial. This was because the grave had not been dug to the right size and had to be altered on the day.

"It had been dug, but was not big enough for the size of the casket.”

“All I want now,” said Kacey bitterly, “is to be able to visit my child’s grave. That is not too much to ask.”

That plea has been repeated by Mr Hambridge, a 28-year-old hotel worker.

“It was the anniversary of my grandfather’s death recently and a few family members went to visit,” he said. “Once I saw the photos I said I couldn’t visit because I don’t want to see the site in that condition. We’re horrified, it’s really distressing.

“My nan, who is in her 70s, can’t even get up there to visit her husband’s grave, because it’s underwater.”

Andrew Walster, the council’s assistant director for green space, said he believed improvements had been made to the flooding problems in recent years, but admitted it was unlikely they would ever be able to fix the issues entirely.

“We apologise that the site is not in the condition we want and expect it to be in,” he explained.

“We’ll continue to do our best to improve the situation and we thank families for their patience while we’re working on that.

“It’s more of a technical issue than a money issue as this service is self-funding, but we don’t have an endless pot of money.

“The clay at the site causes the problem. When they make a canal they do it by using clay as a base, and we’ve effectively got a canal base under there.

“We’ll continue to investigate pumping, drainage and raising levels over the next few years but I don’t think we can give a commitment that we will stop any flooding on that site again.”

[rebbonk]

Very sad. It's a difficult time without problems like this.

[dutchman]

Graves flooded again at city cemetery despite thousands spent on drainage



An ongoing flooding problem at a Coventry graveyard is still leaving families traumatised, despite thousands being spent on draining.

Lentons Lane cemetery in Hawkesbury has had issues with flooding for many years and Coventry City Council has recently spent £75,000 installing drainage - but they are struggling to find a permanent solution.

Michelle Ingram, from Wyken, told the Telegraph she was left shocked by the flooding at the cemetery, which has made her mum’s grave look “such a mess”.

She regularly visits the cemetery, where her mum was buried in February last year, and has found it badly flooded on two separate occasions in just a few weeks.

“I visited the grave a few weeks back and the area was flooded then. Some graves were swimming in water and three of them had sunk a few inches,” she said. “I felt very sad for the families as their loved ones had passed recently.

“The next time I visited it had dried up a bit and the graves that were filled with water had been topped with soil.

“But last week we went back and it is flooded again. It looks such a mess. It was a complete shock.”

Michelle’s dad has trouble walking, leaving him unable to visit the graveyard when it is boggy, and they have not yet been able to put a headstone on the grave. Being unable to tend to the grave properly has been very upsetting for the family.

Michelle said: “We as a family have tended to mum’s grave. Like everyone who loses a loved one, you spend money on items for the grave, you also put flowers down or just visit. You just want to be near that person you lost.

“But we are unable to do that. We can’t stand by mum’s grave, we have to stand at a distance.

“It is bad enough dealing with a loved ones passing but to not be able to walk and put flowers down is very upsetting.”

The council confirmed that they are in the process of draining the cemetery after the recent wet weather and have plans to install new systems into the patches they plan to expand into.

[Melisandre]

What do the council expect when its clay they should of prepared the ground prior to graves being buried there by digging leaf mould into the clay and then grit below grave depth .

[dutchman]

Daughter's heartbreak at finding parents' graves under 'six inches of water'

A heartbroken daughter is demanding action after her parents' graves ended up under six inches of water.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Telegraph people's relatives deserved "more respect" after she saw the state of flooding at Lentons Lane Cemetery this weekend following the recent heavy rainfall.

She is now calling on Coventry City Council to investigate and take action after saying she wasn't able to feel "any dignity" on her visit.

But the council has admitted it may not be able to stop it happening again - despite already having spent £75,000 on drainage at the cemetery.

"I only just lost dad within a year of mum," the anonymous source said.

"Dad was buried on February 28 and by mid March the grave was a quagmire.

"It was soaking Mother’s Day and Easter Monday almost buried in six inches of water. It was absolutely heartbreaking visiting yesterday.

"Plots are not cheap and we are unable to leave flowers or feel any dignity on our visit.

"I literally had to hop from gravestone to gravestone yesterday (Monday).

"When are they going to sort it? I’ve seen petitions, newspaper articles and Facebook forums but nothing concrete from council to address this horrendous problem.

"This is consecrated ground and our relatives and their families deserve more respect.

"Apparently they’ve spent thousands on drainage, this needs investigating."