By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Changes have been made to ensure nobody is buried in the wrong grave again at Gloucester Cemetery.
Gloucester City Council chiefs apologised earlier this year after mistakes led to two people being buried in the wrong places at Coney Hill Cemetery and Crematorium.
They are working on a programme to digitise their cremation and burial records.
And the name of the deceased will now be placed on the grave with a metal stand ahead of the burial.
This information was revealed after Councillor Alastair Chambers (Community Independents, Matson, Robinswood and White City), who first raised the “tragic” mix-up at a meeting in March, asked for an update at last night’s (July 9) cabinet meeting at North Warehouse.
He thanked the council for making the changes to prevent people from being buried in the wrong grave.
Cllr Chambers asked as a follow-up question whether council chiefs would apologise on behalf of the City Council.
“Given this happened under your portfolio where people have been buried in the wrong grave locations,” he said.
“Would you take it upon yourself to wish the families and apologise on behalf of the City Council. It would be much appreciated if you could.
Cllr Declan Wilson (LD, Hucclecote) said he was happy to put on record the council is sorry for what happened.
“Absolutely, we have engaged with the families and we have apologised to them,” he said.
“I was expecting you to ask what we have done to improve things, if you’re interested?”
Cllr Chambers said he was very much interested and said it was great to hear from the managing director that “you’ve actually located two of the missing children’s graves”.
“That’s fantastic news that work is being done and I’ve notified the family member and they are looking forward to accessing the location and having a reunion with their child.
“Thank you for the work you’ve been doing and hopefully you won’t bury any more people in the wrong graves – thank you.”
Cllr Wilson said for funerals the name of the deceased will be placed at the grave on a metal stand.
He also said they created a spreadsheet for every purchase and reserve graves going all the way back to 1976.
And there are plans to move all of the old records into an electronic cremation and burial system and not in “old fashioned” paper form.
“When the procession arrives at the grave they will see a name there,” he said.
“There will be absolutely no confusion and no doubt they are in the right location.”
Cllr Chambers said it was really good to see the steps they’ve taken to solve the issue going forward.
But he stressed there would still be a need for burials to be double checked.
“Given the nature around it, it’s really good to get the name tag of the person that is buried there.
“But please don’t forget you buried a Sally Ann in the wrong Sally Ann’s grave. So double checks still need to be done on that.”