A MALDON man has been left disgusted with the state of a cemetery after discovering his loved ones’ burial places covered up due to overgrown vegetation.
Adam Pipe, 55, has lived in Maldon all his life and has made countless trips to Maldon Cemetery over the last 40 years.
His father John died at the age of 36 in 1979 and was a respected butcher who ran H J Pipe & Son.
He was also a brother to Roy Pipe, former Maldon mayor.
Adam’s mother, Rosanna, died in 1983 due to cancer.
His parents and grandparents have burial plots and plaques at Maldon Cemetery.
On May 25, Adam’s son went to London Road to get a good viewing space for the RideLondon cycle race.
After venturing into the cemetery, his son discovered the garden of remembrance plot’s abysmal state and alerted Adam.
Adam said: “For anyone who has recently visited the Garden of Remembrance, within the London Road Cemetery, they will have felt let down, disappointed, and very likely angry.
“It would appear our district council has allowed nature to take hold of the gardens, to the extent it's either difficult or impossible to seek out our loved ones.
“Being a visitor to the cemetery for over 50 years, paying respect to my late parents and grandparents, I have never seen such a lack of maintenance and care for this unique environment.
“Our district council should hang their heads in shame.
"Spend less time pontificating, and telling each other what great jobs they do, and start managing our key community assets.”
Adam also told The Standard how seeing the cemetery in this way is “really sad”, adding how he could not find his mum and dad’s burial plots and plaques because of the vegetation.
He also described his grandparents’ plots as “knee deep in bushes”.
A spokesman for Maldon District Council said: “We recognise the importance of ensuring that we provide peaceful, well-maintained cemeteries where our residents can mourn their loved ones.
“Our staff and contractors strive to deliver a good level of service across all of our three cemeteries.
“Unfortunately, the warm and wet weather that we have experienced over recent weeks has brought rapid and excessive growth of grass, weeds, and plants within our cemeteries, which our contractors are working hard to deal with.
"We will be working closely with our contractors to ensure our cemeteries are maintained to the best possible condition.
"We would like to apologise for any distress this may have caused.”
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