Health and safety-mad council threatens 'wonderful' Good Samaritan for cleaning gravestones
Ben McGregor, 25, who lost his father and best friend to suicide, voluntarily washes headstones in order to "do his bit for the community".
Mr McGregor manages his cleaning requests through a Facebook page, and said he always ensures he has the permission of the grave owners before embarking on any project...
A spokesman for South Tyneside Council said: "We greatly value the work of volunteers who help care for our cemeteries and work closely with several established Friends of Cemetery groups across the borough.
"A borough‑wide memorial inspection programme is currently underway and not all cemeteries have yet been inspected."
It added that it would be "inappropriate" to allow memorials to be cleaned in areas where standard checks for safety, risk, assessments, insurance and liability have not yet taken place, and has asked all volunteer groups to pause cleaning.
One of those entertaining jobsworth stories we never seem to run out of. We've been cleaning our daughter's grave for over thirty years, but we haven't done a risk assessment, insured ourselves or checked anything to do with liability.
Don't tell anyone though.
4 comments:
Jobsworths indeed. This may be of interest.
I happen to know Steve, as his wife and their family have been living all over Kent for many years. He's a great bloke! He goes everywhere, Channel Islands, way up North and the rest!
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-9513517/Army-veteran-63-restores-80-graves-three-years-forgotten-fallen-soldiers.html
The dedication you show with your daughter's grave does you great credit, and I hope it is still a source of comfort to you and Mrs AK.
Forgot to say, but my dad, back in his engineering days, had a lot to do with the later family of Sir William Garthwaite, mentioned in the DM article.
I remember meeting the old boy at my home many years ago, when I was still a sprog, and he once gave Dad a case of a very special claret for Christmas. We finished the last bottle, which he'd kept all these years, after his funeral in 1994!
Is there a ruling over how often jobsworths like them have to publicise their inventive ways of filling what should be their working day?
Scrobs - that's very interesting and thanks for the link, it fleshes out the story and makes the council attitude seem even worse because he clearly does a very good job. Really - what toads they are.
Sir William Garthwaite claret eh? That's something to remember!
Jannie - bound to be, t's probably in the jobsworth induction training which other jobsworths have to keep up to date for each compliance inspection.
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