Express & Star

Injunction stops Streetly Cemetery protest over maintenance

Mourners were served with an injunction by a Black Country council to stop a protest over cemetery maintenance.

Published

A row between Walsall Council and members of the borough's Muslim community has been ongoing for more than three years and a protest was planned to be held at Streetly Cemetery last weekend.

Originally the row was over flowerbeds and edgings, however the last development was over soil settlement.

Mehboob Matloob, who has been leading the fight to protect the graves in the cemetery where his younger brother is buried, requested that the council make two tons of top soil available for families as bad weather started to cause concern that graves would fall through.

A group led by Mr Matloob was set to protest Walsall Council's decision not to provide the soil at the site last weekend and fill in the graves themselves, however, they arrived to find an injunction had been served preventing them from doing so.

Mr Matloob said: "We are only coming to protect our loved ones graves and make the cemetery a safe for visitors at the same time."

In a statement, Walsall Council said: "As a result of heavy and persistent rain last week, there was some settlement of the soil in a number of graves in cemeteries the council maintains.

This is entirely normal and we have a regular procedure for topping these up and reinstating the affected sites.

"Remedial work took place on Friday 25 November to graves which showed the most significant signs of settlement.

"Where minor settlement was identified, the Council will be reinstating the graves this week.

"The council became aware that members of the community had been encouraged to go to Streetly Cemetery on Saturday to help fill in graves which showed signs of settlement.

"As council operatives already had the necessary work in hand, families were advised that their assistance in this matter was not required.

"Such unauthorised works may have also presented a safety concern. The injunction was taken out on a purely precautionary basis to ensure that, if large numbers of people had turned up on Saturday, the means were at hand to disperse them without any breach of public order or distress to other visitors to the cemetery.

"The injunction was worded to prevent members of the community from bringing soil and other material into the cemetery and carrying out works.

"We will continue managing cemeteries for the benefit of everyone."

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