MORE than 70 people filled Winkleigh Community Centre for a recent meeting of the parish council when there were heated remarks from the public about the actions of the parish clerk with calls for her to resign.

Melanie Bickell of Spreyton has been clerk at Winkleigh for a number of years. Part of her job was to inspect the parish council’s cemetery, under new legislation. This resulted in more than 30 gravestones being laid on the ground without notice which had infuriated people.

On the day of the meeting, September 22, the parish council published a Public Notice listing all the stones that had been laid down, emphasising this was a temporary measure.

It said the burial ground had been inspected on September 6 in accordance with the Institute of Cemetery and Crematoria Management (ICCM) training and standards when several memorials had been found to be “dangerously insecure” and therefore had to be laid down.

Seven parish councillors had resigned over this, including the chairman, Cllr Angela Findlay, leaving four members - Cllrs Alice Turner, Simon Hodgson, Tony Bailey and Ian Whitehead.

They elected Cllr Simon Hodgson as chairman with Cllr Ian Whitehead as vice chairman.

Cllr Hodgson outlined the history of the cemetery, saying that back in the 1950’s the church burial ground was full. The parish council acquired the land, an old RAF facility, to become the cemetery.

It has owned, managed and looked after the cemetery for the last 70 years to the best of its ability.

Cllr Hodgson said it was parish council property, not that of the church. He apologised if any anxiety was directed at the church.

“The cemetery has always been seen as a community asset subsidised by the parish council. We want to know what went wrong and what can we do to make it better, how can we restore faith?,” he asked.

He said there had been annual inspections of the burial ground, but with no training it was hope for the best. “Was this the right thing to do or wrong?” he asked.

“It would be wrong if a headstone fell over,” he added. Cllr Hodgson explained that this year the clerk had done the headstone inspection with Cllr Alice Turner, when 30-odd stones had failed the test which in itself, was a problem.

“It is better to find out before there is some sort of accident. What went wrong then was perhaps the way it was handled.

“The considered best course of action was to lay the headstone down,” he said. Cllr Hodgson added that the parish council had always prided itself on having a neat and tidy cemetery.

He said it was for the parish council to restore the headstones and those who had one had probably received a letter to say that if a headstone was deemed to be unstable it was the responsibility of the owner of the headstone, or their heirs, to make it right.

TITTERS

“I think it is fairly obvious to everyone that mistakes were made,” he said adding that the parish council would be discussing the matter later in the meeting.

“Our intention is to restore those laid down at no cost to the owners. If the owners of the graves feel they are in a situation to make a voluntary contribution (this brought titters from the public), otherwise the council will pay.”

Cllr Hodgson assured the public that the next time there was a cemetery inspection, this sort of thing would not happen. There would be a more robust system because however unstable, the headstone would not be laid down.

He added that the headstones had to meet current regulations. He likened the situation to houses 50 years old that would not meet today’s regulations.

The clerk gave her “sincere and heart felt apology” saying she knew people were angry and she was very, very sorry. One single handclap greeted this.

During the public session which followed, former parish councillor Adrian Mercer, said there had been “not an ounce of understanding, empathy or compassion.”

He said relationships between councillors and clerk had been fractured. He said that three months ago there was an investigation into the performance of the clerk. He had accepted the decision and had done nothing. “Here we are with a council in tatters, councillors who have shown poor judgement and if you wish to salvage the situation you suspend the clerk or resign and make way for those of us who have some backbone and do something.” This was greeted by cries of “hear, hear” and loud applause.

Cllr Tony Bayley said he had been on the council for a number of years to help the community. He said he was on the panel when the clerk was investigated and genuinely could not decide one way or another.

He added that he had not resigned because he was not in the UK at the time, he needed to find out the facts.

He said the village had lost some good councillors who he hoped would feel they could return in the future.

He understood people were boycotting his Post Office. He said he had relatives buried at Holsworthy and genuinely understood people’s feelings at Winkleigh.

When he said the council needed to decide how to go forward he received a few claps.

Cllr Hodgson said if he had not seemed to have enough sympathy, he was truly sorry.

When Greg Goldsworthy asked the clerk if she felt she had made a great mistake and had she followed protocol there were cries of “no” from the audience.

When he asked if the clerk felt the moral thing to do would be to resign there was applause.

One person said family members should have been consulted over the gravestones, people had felt badly let down.

He said the cemetery was now in a disgusting state. When he said if the council did not get it right, it would make the village a laughing stock, there was more applause.

When it was asked if the two perpetrators (the clerk and Cllr Alice Turner) should pay the whole cost there was more applause.

Asked about cost, the chairman said this would come from the parish council.

The clerk said it had taken her two weeks to identify the families who owned the headstones.

She added that she had been naive when she did the inspection, not expecting any headstones to need to be laid down. This brought a shout of “rubbish”.

There were questions about the training and equipment that might have been used in the inspection.

A member of the public said he had lived in the village for 12 years and had often been the only member of the public to attend a parish council meeting. He knew being a parish councillor could be demanding and unrewarding.

“You might not have got it right but at least you tried to do your best in difficult circumstances and I think before we, as the general public, begin pointing fingers we should ask if we have, as a community, done enough to try to support these people at a difficult time.”

When he added that he hoped a few more people would turn up at the next council meeting, he received a single clap.

When another member of the public said that the council had admitted it had gone wrong and had tried to put it right as quickly as possible, there was applause.

Another person said at present Winkleigh had a dysfunctional council with only four members. He hoped all those councillors who were respected, were good people and had done a good job, would be encouraged to go back to the fold.

Cllr Alice Turner told the meeting she had gone with the clerk on the inspection but had not done any of the training with her, her remit being the hedges.

The headstones were laid without being damaged, she had understood the safety of the headstones was the top priority. When she said notice should probably have been given, there were yells of “probably” from the public.

A monumental mason in the audience commented that a one-day training course would not really be sufficient.

The clerk replied that she had gone on a day course in Okehampton with 15 others with a practical session in the afternoon.

Discussing the future of the headstones, the council agreed with Cllr Hodgson who felt that, rightly or wrongly, the parish council should foot the bill to restore the cemetery.

While he could not say what the cost would be, the council would formulate a plan as to how to do this with as little cost to the parish as possible and as quickly as possible.

This would be using the labour of the parish coupled with the skilled and professional services of a monumental mason.

He added that this situation would never happen again; that the council would formulate a proper means of achieving its legal requirements.

He added that previous inspections had identified one or two unstable headstones with the next of kin being informed.

VACANCIES

There was then discussion about advertising the seven vacancies on the council and what people should do if they wish an election to be called.

When Cllr Hodgson asked if there were nominations, there was silence.

The council went into Part Two, meaning that the Press and public had to leave.

STATEMENT

Following the meeting, Winkleigh Parish Council Chairman, Cllr Simon Hodgson, issued a statement on the council’s social media page which read:

"During the Parish Council meeting of September 22, 2021, it was very apparent that the recent cemetery inspection was of great concern for many people.

"It was clear that the Parish Council did not have a robust testing and rectification procedure in place.

"There appear to be discrepancies between the different types of memorial inspection training available. Mistakes were made, and the overall result has been a loss of confidence in the parish council.

"Consequently, the Parish Council has decided that it will initiate a full and independent inquiry into the events leading up to, and including the day of the cemetery inspection.

"To ensure impartiality, the inquiry will be carried out by people with no connection to either Winkleigh or Torridge District Council. The Parish Council will act on any recommendations arising from the conclusion of the inquiry.

"Until the conclusion of this inquiry, all the duties of the Parish Council Clerk will be carried out by members of the council, or a locum clerk as required.

"In the meantime, all correspondence relating to Winkleigh Parish Council and the cemetery should be directed to: [email protected] where your enquiry will be dealt with as soon as possible.

"Please note that all Parish Council correspondence will be circulated to all Councillors as we are collectively undertaking the duties of the Clerk at this time."