Reinstating Harrogate District cemeteries |
Offenders have helped Harrogate District Council reinstate hundreds of memorials through Community Payback, whilst earning themselves qualifications from the York College of Masonry.
Although the Council was undertaking a safety survey of all memorials in cemeteries and churchyards across the district, the death of a six year old child from a falling memorial in 2000 led to the survey having to be done in a two year period. That meant many of the memorials that were found to be unsafe had to be laid down before families could be traced.
Philip Andrew, Bereavement Services Manager, said many of the memorials have been reinstated by families or by the council but that the sheer scale of the project to be undertaken and the costs of it meant that work was hampered until North Yorkshire Probation Area readily agreed to offer support. He said, “Not only have they done a sterling job and made a big impact on a large percentage of the restoration work, many of the offenders are seeing the benefits of outdoor working and have expressed an interest in becoming gardeners or grave diggers working for the council, which is good news for their future.”
“We were also delighted that the York College of Masonry has come on boards and some of the offenders are receiving qualifications in memorial work. We hope that our support and gratitude for their help on this project may lead to them getting full time employment in this field of employment.”
All offenders have worked under North Yorkshire Probation Area supervisors and all work has been overseen by the Council’s own Memorial Technical Officer.
The offenders have now finished everything they can help with in Ripon Cemetery, having re-erected 200 memorials.
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