A RESIDENT has hit out at vandals who have damaged historic graves in Bromsgrove Cemetery.
David Pardoe contacted The Standard about the damage to the late Victorian and early Edwardian stones which he noticed this morning (Friday) while he was walking his dogs in the area on Church Lane.
“It has been a long time since anything like this has happened in Bromsgrove but for someone to do this is not acceptable.
“It beggars belief because these actions are of no gain to anyone.
“I don’t know why someone would do it.
“I walk that way quite a bit, sometimes late at night, and there are always kids hanging around there.
“This could be a result of the council not locking the cemetery gates at night.”
A Bromsgrove District Council spokesperson said: “Whilst our officers cannot see any other indications this might have been caused by anti-social behaviour or vandalism, it is difficult to say exactly how this damage has occurred.
“Typically anti-social behaviour is widespread as a result of vandals finding it ‘funny’ to do lots of damage.
“This appears to be localised to two gravestones within a close proximity to each other.
“Unfortunately the age of these particular stones means that it may be quite difficult for us to find a living owner to repair the stones.
“If this is the case we will place the existing stones in a more appropriate manner over the grave.”
He added burials in that part of the cemetery were mainly from the early 1930s and the stones may not have been visited on a regular basis which made it quiet.
He claimed Bromsgrove Cemetery had very few issues with vandalism and said he believed locking the gates would cause more issues than it would solve.
“It is used as a cut through by many residents and it is nice to see people still wondering through the cemetery as part of their route through Bromsgrove.
“In fact, the more people there are using the cemetery as a cut through, the more likely it is we will deter or even catch vandals who might be scared of getting caught.
“We are however, in the process of doing a consultation around locking the vehicle access to North Bromsgrove Cemetery.”
