APPENDIX 4
Bishops Stortford Cemetery Peer Review
July 2011
Bishops Stortford Cemetery Peer Review
Chris Wayman, Town Clerk, Buckingham Town Council
Reason for the Review
The main remit for the review of the Cemeteries at Bishops Stortford is to try and reduce the costs
and enable them to run more efficiently.
Methodology
On Friday the 1st July I travelled to Bishops Stortford and spent approximately three hours discussing
the cemetery with James Parker, the Chief Executive, and a brief interview was held with Lesley
Howell who undertakes the cemetery administration. A walk around the cemeteries took place for
the last hour of the visit. This was undertook with Simon Camp the Forman.
Overview
Reviewer – My name is Christopher Wayman and I am the Town Clerk at Buckingham Town Council,
where I have been in post since January 2010, being promoted from Deputy Town Clerk. Before
working at the Town Council I was a community development worker.
During my time at the Council I have taken a special interest in the Cemetery in Buckingham and the
position of Deputy Town Clerk had a dual role of Burial Officer. Over the last two years there has
been a marked improvement in the look and feel of the Cemetery in Buckingham, where previously
we had been on the front page of the local paper for the poor upkeep we are now receiving praise
from local residents over the appearance of the cemetery. This improvement has been undertaken
with a reduction in the budget of the cemetery as a whole (however, this was mainly due to letting
out the Cemetery Lodge to private tenants).
Reviewee – Bishops Stortford Town Council currently have two cemeteries, which are separated by
Cemetery Road. The older cemetery has had only the occasional burial in the last few years.
However, the newer cemetery where the burials take place is nearly full up. It is understood that
further burial space has been secured adjacent to the current cemetery and that negotiations are
currently progressing with a longer term solution.
The major cause for concern was however the overall cost to the Council of maintaining these sites
and the lack of income being generated. The cemeteries having a net loss, as represented in the
budget, of nearly £200,000 (£198,000).
Review
It was quite clear from the information provided that the main cause for concern was the high cost
of the cemetery. Therefore although there were conversations over the administration of the
cemetery, which had been recently reviewed and improved, the focus was on the costs associated
with the cemetery. It is obvious that both cemeteries are well cared for and are assets to the town.
Ground staff should be praised for the dedication and effort they put in to maintaining these
wonderful areas.
APPENDIX 4
Bishops Stortford Cemetery Peer Review
July 2011
Mr Parker was aware that the budget overstates the cost of the cemetery (and understates the cost
of other services) due to the way the ‘allocations’ (ie transfers of cost between cost centres) are
done. This has no effect on the Council’s total budget however does tend to distort the apparent
cost of the cemetery services. This was discussed on the day and steps have already been
undertaken to give a more accurate view of costs for each of the Council’s outside functions. From
the figures provided the a more representative cost of the Cemetery is £161,000 instead of
£198,000, the difference is, in reality, attributable to other outdoor services provided by the Council.
Us
The equipment budget toped £28,000 in the financial year. This needs to be monitored to ensure
that spending in this regard does not increase; however, it needs to be ensured that staff have
reliable and safe machinery to work with. From observing staff members and viewing the old and
new Cemetery it is recommended to invest in a new mower to cut down on staff time mowing the
cemetery. Ride on mowers could be purchased which double the width of the area being cut
ensuring that staff need to drive twice down a row of graves rather that walk four times over to
achieve the same distance. A Cub Cadet 122cm/48" 24hp "Direct Collect" Garden Tractor from
Lawnflite is available for £4,299. By having a 48” width this would be able to travel in straight lines
long the tops of the graves. Strimming would have to be continued as currently.
One route taken by Buckingham Town Council is the employment of the Probation service to provide
Community Payback workers. These are people completing their community service. Thames Valley
Police charge £100 a day and supervise the gang. Gang can vary in size from week to week but are
normally between 5-10 workers. These could then be used to supplement the current staff doing
manual tasks such as edging the paths in the old Cemetery or hedge cutting or longer term
beatification schemes. Workers and gangs cannot be used to replace existing staff but can be used
on longer term projects.
There are more radical measures which could be taken. One of which would be to move the older
headstones and kerbing away from the existing graves. These can be placed to the edge of the
cemetery creating large open spaces where the larger mowers could be used. However, this is a
highly controversial and drawn out procedure. A further option would be to remove the hedge
around the new cemetery area; once the fence is repaired and painted it would not need painting as
often as the hedge needs trimming. Another option could be to remove trees within the old
cemetery; this would open up the area, creating more light into the centre and provide better views.
It would also reduce ongoing tree maintenance and may help in reducing time taken for strimming.
To increase the income from the existing cemeteries there are very few activities that can be
undertaken, the most effective is to increase the prices charged for burials and to charge for such
things as looking at old records. Other ideas could be to sell benches to those wishing to have a
further memorial, however, realistically the revenue raised would be small since only an
administration charge could realsitically be levied.
An initiative currently been undertaken in Buckingham is the creation of a Cemetery Management
Plan. This plan, once completed, will provide all staff and all members an overview of the cemetery,
a detailed look at all the features, e.g. benches, walls, bins. Also included will be a full maintenance
schedule with estimated timings for work and expected costs. A section will also include long term
management of projects to continue the improvements in the cemetery e.g. repairs to walls, repairs
to the chapels etc. This is a piece of work which could also be undertaken in Bishops Stortford if
resources allow it.
APPENDIX 4
Bishops Stortford Cemetery Peer Review
July 2011
However, there are measures which could be undertaken to reduced costs with the planned new
cemetery (occupation of which is understood to be some eight years in the future). In an ashes area
it could be laid out in a formal manor with a white set of paving stones, which are lifted for a burial
and replaced. The tablet can then be installed up on this. This method would give a nice straight line
of memorials and also mean less strimming as individual tablets would not need to be done. A
suitable grass pathway can be left in between each row to enable the Council’s mower to traverse. A
similar method could be untaken with full sized burial plots, leaving more room would enable larger
more efficient mowers to cut the grass. Some of these measures increase capital cost in order to
reduce maintenance cost.
Another option to be considered would be to split the new cemetery into four sections, one for
ashes, one for green burials , one section as a lawn cemetery and the last section would allow any
type of memorial (within the stated guidelines). Green burials are increasingly popular; many burial
grounds charge much higher prices for burials in these sections. Also as they are designed to be
essentially left there is little to no maintenance. A lawned Cemetery could be laid out similar to how
ashes are above, however, with headstones instead of tablets. The last section could be for any
family who wish for a large memorial e.g. kerbing/slabbed graves or who wish to cultivate the plot or
put other reminders of their loved ones. By placing these all in the same section it would clear other
sections for easy maintenance and it would be known that this section could only be undertaken by
strimmers.
Recommendations
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Re-state financials to more accurately reflect the cost of the cemetery and other
services.(work already started).
Investigate further more appropriate grass cutting methods and machinery
Investigate if Community Payback workers could be utilised in Bishop Stortford and the
cemeteries.
Decide if more radical solutions would be appropriate to the people of Bishop Stortford and
their cemeteries.
Create a Cemetery Management Plan for the cemeteries
To look at the future cemetery provision and design the new cemetery based on methods to
reduce maintainance costs.