Telford cemetery IS open at weekends, parish council says
Fears that a cemetery will be closed at weekends have been calmed by council chiefs.
Concerns were raised online by those hoping to visit Hadley Cemetery, in Telford, after finding opening hours online show the site closed at weekends.
However Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council has since made reassurances that this is an error – it opens every day of the week.
John Brumwell, clerk of the council, said: "It is not closed at weekends, but we have discovered the problem.
"If you do a Google search for the cemetery, it displays information about the cemetery including a map location, a photo and also opening hours.
"These seem to be default opening hours of 9am to 5pm five days a week.
"Unfortunately this is an automatically generated listing and not something created by the council."
Mr Brumwell said a number of calls had been made to the council about the opening hours after something was posted on social media raising the confusion.
However, he said, the council wanted to assure anyone with loved ones at the cemetery that it was not closed over the weekend.
He said: "We are open every day of the week. We do have some official opening times which are 9am to 5pm daily – including Saturday and Sunday.
"Although people can go in after 5pm, there are no staff on duty. We are fortunate enough to have a cemetery manager employed full time who works 9am to 5pm five days a week.
"After that time he is not on duty but can deal with an emergency."
Mr Shaw added that while the official hours were in place, visitors are allowed on to site after 5pm, as long as they are off within a reasonable hour.
He said: "People are welcome to visit at any time. We do already have some incidents of anti-social behaviour.
"We do have thefts, some things are damaged, we have people bringing drink on to the cemetery.
"The gates are not locked, they are shut but not locked so we are happy for people so be in the cemetery as long as they behave appropriately.
"I would think that people probably should be out by 8pm. We want everyone using the cemetery to be safe, and ensure it is secure and kept at a good standard."
