2023-09-18 04:00:00
It was via the orange Alert Us button that Jocelyne contacted us to share her anger once morest her municipality. While she recently spent €800 to extend her mother’s grave, Jocelyne notices that it is invaded by weeds. A situation that she does not accept, she asks her municipality for a reaction.
It is November 1, 2022 and, like every year, Jocelyne and her two sisters decide to go and pay their respects at their mother’s grave, located in the Wemmel cemetery, in the Flemish region.
However, once there, they discover a strange panel. “Please contact municipal services if you wish to extend. And failing that, the graves will be removed“, it is written. Quickly, astonishment sets in among the three sisters, “I understand that they have to do it, but hey, I found it a bit unwelcome“, says Jocelyne. They quickly decided to pay the 800 euros requested to extend the location for another 20 years.
©wemmel.be
A deplorable state
Recently, she made a discovery that she considers shocking. While she went to her mother’s grave, like every Sunday, she noticed that it was in a state close to abandonment. “Today, the graves of the families who decided not to pay have been removed and my mother stays with a few people, but everything is overgrown with weeds“, laments one of the sisters.
“Paying 800 euros for it to be in a ‘potato field’, that’s what’s revolting. We understand that everyone must maintain their own plot a little. (…) They didn’t even bother to upgrade everything so that it was clean and even. Suddenly you have holes and dents in every corner“, she gets annoyed.
©RTL Info
Outraged by the state of disrepair of the cemetery, Jocelyne wonders. “I know that we can no longer use weedkiller, but all the same, there are other ways to maintain it. I am well aware that they do not know how to take care of all the plots. But from the moment when, in a row, you have 1 or 2 tombs left and everything else is abandoned, it is shocking for the tombs that remain.“, she exclaims.
What does the municipality respond to?
To try to understand the reason for the problem, we contacted the municipality. This lists several reasons which explain the state of the cemetery: “We are aware that the maintenance of the municipal cemetery might be improved. Indeed, a certain number of factors have caused the weeds to grow vigorously this year: The municipality does not use, for ecological reasons, herbicides to combat weeds. Additionally, this summer’s hot, humid weather has caused weeds to grow particularly vigorously. Finally, the holiday period is also a very busy period for municipal services with the organization of numerous events and transport (fairs, camp transport, etc.). All these reasons mean that the maintenance of the cemetery was not optimal last summer. The short-term action plan is, following the holiday period, to thoroughly clean the cemetery and in the long term to redevelop and green it in its entirety.“, she explains.
Change to come
Faced with the situation, the three sisters decided to take action to try to resolve the situation. “My sister and I wanted to use big means, saying to ourselves: ‘We want to make things happen.“. So, they posted the photos of the cemetery on a group of Wemmel residents. And quickly, the reactions were quick to be heard.
To try to find out more, we contacted the mayor of Wemmel, Walter Vansteenkiste. The latter redirected us to Alderman Roger Mertens, responsible for matters related to the commune’s cemetery. The latter explains to us that it is the Krinkels company which has been appointed to take care of the cemetery.
After contacting the company in question, it explains: “In the past, we actually carried out the maintenance of part of the Wemmel cemetery on behalf of the Haviland intermunicipal association. The latter asked us to no longer carry out this interview this year due to the existence of a greening project for this cemetery.“.
After asking Roger Mertens the question, he confirmed to us that “a redevelopment plan should see the light of day shortly, following approval of the college and the municipal council“This plan aims to make the site greener, but also to allow the creation of a meditation area or the redevelopment of the parking lot at the entrance.”A first discussion took place at the College but without success given the excessive price of the project and also the creation of a recreational area in the cemetery. A meeting bringing together the alderman for Heritage, the environment and the cemetery (myself) must take place in the coming weeks“, explains Roger Mertens.
It therefore seems that the cemetery is forced to go through a phase of turbulence before finding a new lease of life.
Wemmel cemetery grave concession
1695013269
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