May 18 - In Loving Memory Cemetery Petition Group Writes To Minister Cortes
For the past three weeks, the “In Loving Memory” group have been running a petition urging the Government to review the maintenance of North Front Cemetery. The group says that, so far, it has managed to gather “an amazing number of signatures in a short amount of time.”
Yesterday, they group hand delivered a letter to Dr. John Cortes, Minister for Environment, requesting that the Ministry for Environment acknowledge that the current state of the cemetery is not acceptable and asking them to commit to doing something about it. A copy of the letter was also hand delivered to Trevor Hammond, Shadow Minister for Environment.
Here is the letter:
Tuesday 17th May 2016
Dr. John Cortes , Ministry for Environment, Duke of Kent House, Cathedral Square,
Gibraltar
Dear Dr. Cortes,
We are writing this letter to bring to your attention something that we believe is unfair and requires attention. We demand that the Government review the maintenance of North Front Cemetery. We believe that the currentstate of the cemetery is nothing short of a disgrace – forgotten graves are not maintained, there’s damage to paving stones, it’s overgrown with weeds and littered with the debris of crumbling tombs and headstones. It is disrespectful to the people who are buried there and their families who visit them. We cannot comprehend how Government can expect people, especially the elderly or disabled, to clamber over rubble or stumble through overgrown weeds and shrubs to visit a loved one’s grave. It’s not just a case of considering the cemetery’s current state to be disrespectful, but we feel that the wide array of hazards also present risks to the health and safety of people who go there. The maintenance, including the performance of cemetery staff (comprising Keeper of the Cemetery, eight gravediggers and eight maintenance staff) and companies contracted to take care of it, need to be reviewed and appropriate action taken to get it to an acceptable level as soon as possible. We request that the Ministry for Environment acknowledge that the current state of the cemetery is not acceptable and commits to doing something about it. We request this on behalf of the six hundred and thirty four supporters of our online petition on change.org.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions or would like more information, we can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Sincerely,
Eliza Victor, Kelly-Anne Victor and Ellen Chaplin
Campaigners, In Loving Memory
Petition can be seen on https://www.change.org/p/cm-gibraltar-gov-gi-improve-our-cemetery
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