A woman who regularly visits family buried at Shirehampton Cemetery was left in tears at what she described as "the appalling state in which it has been allowed to get in". Gaynor Whiting, who now lives in Clevedon, was visiting her mother's grave on what would have been her birthday on Tuesday (May 23), only to discover that it, and other family members' graves, were barely visible behind the long grass.
Ms Whiting's parents, grandparents and young son are all buried at the cemetery. Though she said the issue of the overgrown grass and other plant life was not just confined to her family's graves, but the entire cemetery.
Bristol City Council has apologised for any distress caused, and said the wet weather in April meant the team's grass cutting equipment couldn't be used. The authority said it aims to have the cemetery back to its 'usual standards in the near future'.
Speaking to Bristol Live Ms Whiting said: "I had a dreadful day yesterday, it was my mum's birthday and I just wanted to wish her happy birthday. I went up there and it was so overgrown - you can't see the stone through the grass.
"I got my husband to come with me because I just couldn't do it on my own and I just thought 'this is dreadful'. I sat there on the bench and we thought 'what on earth has happened here' - and I just burst into tears.
"This is the final straw - I can't let this go on any longer. It's so disrespectful for the dead. It's awful."
Ms Whiting, whose grown-up children still reside in the Shirehampton and Portishead areas, added that she had spoken previously with the council about the cemetery's maintenance and she told Bristol Live: "They said they'd get it seen to and they do go up and have a little look and then it just all disappears. There's no regular grass cutting going on in there, but when you look at the ones in North Somerset - like Portishead - it's absolutely lovely in there, they've cut the grass and all you've got to do is wipe the stone over and put some flowers down. It's lovely.
"So I don't know why Bristol Council have let this one go. It keeps happening all the time. I went up there three or four weeks ago and it hadn't been cut then but the grass wasn't so high, so I thought they'd be doing it soon because the weather's changing."
"Now it's just ridiculous - I walked in yesterday and when you walk through the gate they have cut the grass inside along the path, but they've just not bothered with the cemetery around the stones. It's a shame because on times like Mother's Day, and with Father's Day coming up, they do get a lot of visitors in there and I've noticed that a couple of graves further up, someone has cut the grass around them and put fresh flowers down, so they're obviously upset about it too.
"So there are a lot of visitors still going there and they still have burials in there. It's not as if it's a really old, abandoned cemetery with no visitors."
She added that she recalled a time many years ago where a couple of people would actively go in to cut the grass in the cemetery, but said that was so long ago and there's been nothing as dedicated as this since, to her knowledge. She's hoping that she can find a solution to this now, or else she says she will "be putting AstroTurf down".
"I can't go up there - it's already upsetting as it is," she went on to say, "I don't want to go up there and see it like this. It is absolutely disgusting."
Ms Whiting's ex husband - and the father of her children - also recently passed away, adding more heartbreak to the family, and they had planned to place his ashes at the family site, too. However, due to the overgrown conditions Ms Whiting said they simply wouldn't be able to see where they'd be putting them.
She said: "It's such a traumatic time and, of course my children have been really upset about it as well because they've lost their dad and when I sent my daughter pictures of the site she said 'oh mum, how can I put dad up there' and I said 'I just don't know but I'm going to have to try to do something about it'. It just needs regular grass cutting.
"You shouldn't have to take it on yourself and hire someone to do your patch every week. It's the whole of the cemetery, even behind my son's grave, there's just ivy and weeds creeping forward, all over the angel on his grave and you have to dig it all away.
"And, to be honest, the houses next to the cemetery must be fed up with it because it's all going in there gardens. They've got to get in there and do something - it needs a major overhaul in there."
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “Due to the wet conditions in April, we were unable to carry out our usual grass cutting as the use of ride-on mowers would have damaged the grounds. The sunny weather that followed the wet period led to rapid growth of the grass.
“All available teams have now been deployed on the maintenance of the grounds and we are also hiring and training new staff, and working over weekends. We expect the lawns to be cut by the end of this week and the other areas complete by the end of the following week.
“We are sorry for any distress caused and aim to have the cemetery back to its usual standard in the near future.”
Read next:
- Family's West Country holiday 'ruined' by ant infestation and theft at caravan park
- Mum discovers she has three brain tumours after routine dentist visit
- Bristol residents turn down the heat on energy prices with clever strategies
- Cycle path portrait benches pay homage to Bristol's community champions
