Blessing of the Graves access complaints at Derry City Cemetery raised
‘Small number of complaints received’ by Derry City and Strabane District Council
Derry City and Strabane District Council said it had received a “small number of complaints” around this year’s Blessing of the Graves service.
The event took place on Sunday, June 22 at 3.00pm. As a result, the cemetery was closed to the general public in the morning, except for burials. It re-opened at 1.00pm.
130 car parking spaces were made available within the cemetery for Blue Badge holders. These places were allocated on a first come first served basis to current Blue Badge holders and had to be booked in advance on Derry City and Strabane District Council’s website.
The people using these spaces could only access them via the Lonemoor Road entrance and were asked to arrive before 2.00pm as the gates would then be closed. No other cars were allowed access to the cemetery.
Speaking at June’s full Council meeting, Cllr Gary Donnelly said there had been “a lot of negative feedback about the event and the operation put in place on the day”.
“Is the Council aware of it? Has it been articulated to Council and are there any plans to deal with it if it has?” asked Cllr Donnelly.
Mayor of Derry and Strabane, Cllr Ruairí McHugh said he had had the “pleasure of attending” the Blessing of the Graves and that a couple of attendees had “expressed their frustration at the traffic management and access to the cemetery” to him.
“I did feed that back to council officers this morning and I know that the double gates were closed because of traffic or an incident last year, I think to do with a car hitting a steward,” the Mayor said.
Council’s director of environment and regeneration Karen Phillips said Council had had some positive feedback in relation to the Blessing of the Graves event and “a small number of complaints in relation to the event as well”.
Ms Philips said: “We will obviously take all of those into consideration in terms of preparations for next year and we will engage with members as early as we can next year in order to go through all of the plans for the event and any of the issues that have been raised with us or complaints, we will address them as well.”
Cllr Shaun Harkin said quite a few people had expressed their “frustration” to him.
“I know this has been something Council officers have been working on and it is a difficult one to address given the number of people that attend the Blessing of the Graves,” he added.
“There is one issue that I’ll ask about. I had a constituent talk to me and they had been arrested the day before in relation to the event.
“Is the Council aware of this because it was a concerning issue when I heard about it?”
Councillor Harkin was told that the Council was aware that the PSNI was “investigating that issue”.
Cllr Donnelly said there was “a concern within the community” about the issue.
“It is a live issue but there is confusion about whether that’s a personal matter between the person who was arrested and the person who was making the allegation.
“But, there is a perception that Council may have used influence to have someone arrested and excluded. Is that something that can be dispelled because that is out there and if that was the case, then it would cause concern,” added Cllr Donnelly.
Councillors were then told Council was “aware and this is a matter that is being investigated by the PSNI and it is a live investigation” and the officer could not comment any further.