Musings from the Merse
Saturday, December 29, 2007
No Truck with Death?
I don't think this letter to last Thursday's Berwickshire was written by the deceased (to Mr Callum Hay of the Scottish Borders Council) -although she (we know this)seems to be something of a funeral groupie given past correspondence with the highheidyins ic Borders cemetries.
SIR, - As director of technical services with Scottish Borders Council I would like you to explain the following.
Why, despite me having raised this issue numerous times with your department over the past few years (and know personally of others who have done likewise) Scottish Borders Council employees continue to show no respect for bereaved families at Eyemouth Cemetery?
I refer to the intrusion of a large, yellow, SBC truck being left in the middle of the cemetery, while a funeral is in progress. Mourners and funeral transport are left to detour around it, with people having to walk over paths and graves, which are often treacherous for those who are not sure foooted.
Are your employees completely insensitive, or just sheer lazy? Everyone in Eyemouth is aware the nearby carpark cannot accommodate the truck during busy times, but just what is stopping the driver* moving it to the nearby industrial estate and returning later?
The state of the cemetery is bad enough with very uneven paths and no running water in the new area without the indignity of having the said truck during any funeral. Maybe this letter will finally make a difference!
Funerals are much jollier affairs across the water-Ireland not France in this instance and an intrusion by a council truck presumably involved in the upkeep of the cemetry would raise few hackles and might even attract some applause. My favourite account of one of these unsolemn occasions appeared in the Cork Examiner a few years back:
"One of the mourners dropped dead at the graveside and this cast an air of gloom over the proceedings"
SBC Technical Services:
Follow that.
(* Might it have been his funeral? Just a thought. Blog-ed)
I don't think this letter to last Thursday's Berwickshire was written by the deceased (to Mr Callum Hay of the Scottish Borders Council) -although she (we know this)seems to be something of a funeral groupie given past correspondence with the highheidyins ic Borders cemetries.
SIR, - As director of technical services with Scottish Borders Council I would like you to explain the following.
Why, despite me having raised this issue numerous times with your department over the past few years (and know personally of others who have done likewise) Scottish Borders Council employees continue to show no respect for bereaved families at Eyemouth Cemetery?
I refer to the intrusion of a large, yellow, SBC truck being left in the middle of the cemetery, while a funeral is in progress. Mourners and funeral transport are left to detour around it, with people having to walk over paths and graves, which are often treacherous for those who are not sure foooted.
Are your employees completely insensitive, or just sheer lazy? Everyone in Eyemouth is aware the nearby carpark cannot accommodate the truck during busy times, but just what is stopping the driver* moving it to the nearby industrial estate and returning later?
The state of the cemetery is bad enough with very uneven paths and no running water in the new area without the indignity of having the said truck during any funeral. Maybe this letter will finally make a difference!
Funerals are much jollier affairs across the water-Ireland not France in this instance and an intrusion by a council truck presumably involved in the upkeep of the cemetry would raise few hackles and might even attract some applause. My favourite account of one of these unsolemn occasions appeared in the Cork Examiner a few years back:
"One of the mourners dropped dead at the graveside and this cast an air of gloom over the proceedings"
SBC Technical Services:
Follow that.
(* Might it have been his funeral? Just a thought. Blog-ed)
Labels: Cemetries, Scottish Borders Council
Comments:
Funny! cf " the water supply must be clean if it can support all those microscopic animals" in a 35 years ago Irish Times.
# posted by 
: 12:44 PM
: 12:44 PM
Or in the household hints section of a Wexford paper: 'To repair damaged tablecloths first lay the cloth flat with the hole uppermost'
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