Friends and families of loved ones buried at a Fife cemetery have been left distraught by the sorry state of the graveyard.
Visitors to St Drostan’s Cemetery in Markinch have expressed their shock and anger about the cemetery’s poor appearance, with a number of people complaining about unkempt grass, deep potholes in paths and roads, and overgrown weeds littering the normally picturesque site.
People have even resorted to taking their own lawnmowers and strimmers to the cemetery to give patches of land the care and attention that has been lacking in recent months.
The issue has been taken up on behalf of local residents by former grave digger Eck Pearson, 70, who spent many years maintaining St Drostan’s Cemetery and was taken aback by the current situation.
“It’s never been in the state that it is and I’ve had tons of people phoning me very upset,” he said.
“I met a couple yesterday who were visiting their relatives’ graves and the man and woman were both in tears. They were brokenhearted.
“You can hardly see some of the gravestones because the grass is so long.
“I used to spray it all with weedkiller every year but it looks like nothing has been done at all, yet you see places like Scoonie and Macduff in East Wemyss and they have all been kept nice.”
Liz Murphy, bereavement services manager at Fife Council, apologised to anyone who had been affected by the situation but stressed that action was being taken.
She said: “I’m sorry if this has caused anyone distress, however the recent combination of heat and rain has caused the first rapid growth of the season in all cemeteries across Fife.
“It hasn’t been possible to work in all of them at the same time, particularly as we’ve also been managing a high number of burials.
“We’re trying to get extra staff to help with grass cutting and one of the squads has actually been working in St Drostan’s Cemetery since Monday.
“We’re also arranging to have the potholes filled but don’t have a timescale for this work yet.”
