Mid and East Antrim: 'burials prioritised' over maintenance due to cemetery staff shortage

A staff shortage has been blamed for uncut grass and bulging bins in Larne’s Greenland Cemetery in Craigyhill.

In reply to a tabled question by Coast Road DUP Councillor Andrew Clarke, the council said staff are “prioritising burials and are attending to maintenance (grass cutting and emptying bins) in between times”.

Cllr Clarke has asked for an assurance of scheduled maintenance at the cemetery and if it was “accepted that to remain dignified and respectful, places of reflection and mourning that cemeteries require ongoing maintenance”.

In response, the local authority has advised: “Cemetery Service across Mid and East Antrim acknowledges the need for Mid and East Antrim cemeteries to be dignified and respectful places of reflection and mourning.

“Staff teams work to achieve this position and plan maintenance resources accordingly across all cemeteries. The resources in the cemetery section come under significant pressure at this time of year and review service delivery on this basis.

“Unfortunately the service is experiencing a number of challenges due to gaps within the staffing structure and the need to manage within restricted budgets.

Additional Staffing

“The staff are prioritising burials and are attending to maintenance (grass cutting and emptying bins) in between times. Recruitment of additional staffing for cemeteries is currently underway which will provide additional resources to maintain the standards required.”

Comments on social media have described the appearance of the cemetery in Craigyhill as a “disgrace” saying that it “looks neglected”.

Operations director Philip Thompson said recruitment is taking place at present seeking six staff members, two for each area of the borough.

Bannside TUV Cllr Timothy Gaston asked if there is a lack of frontline services within the council.

“We can’t take our eye off the ball. If we are getting to a position where we need more staff on the ground, that is something this council needs to put its support behind.”

Interim chief executive Valerie Watts said: “I have to say I have been noticing a significant number of increased complaints coming through my office about grounds maintenance issues generally and about maintenance of cemeteries and parks and open spaces.

“The director of operations is on top of the issue and there is a recruitment drive ongoing to try to recruit more frontline staff into key vacant positions.”

However, she cautioned: “Without a major reorganisation of some of the budget lines, we can’t create posts that we haven’t the money to fill or support.”

Cllr Gaston continued: “It is something that our ratepayers regularly interact with us on. Is there is a fundamental problem that we haven’t given the operations director or directorate enough resources to carry out these jobs?

Right Outcomes

“Ballymena is expanding, Carrick is expanding, Larne is expanding. It might be time to look at if we are actually putting the resources into the right places at the right time to get the right outcomes from that.

“The problem might not be the vacancies. The problem might be that our staff are just too stretched for what we are asking them to do.”

The chief executive reported a review of “budgeted posts” is being carried out across each department in an exercise to “take a note of all the vacant positions” at each level and to ensure vacancies are being filled “in a timely fashion”.

“One way of managing the budget when you have a severe budget shortfall would be to cut back on filling those posts Every vacancy comes through the senior management team for approval and at no time do we ever put a ban or stoppage or delay on recruiting into frontline positions. They are automatically given approval to be filled.

“The problem that we are experiencing now is actually attracting people into these jobs.”

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter