Council pay £500 to repair vandalised graves at Poole Cemetery (From Bournemouth Echo)

Council pay £500 to repair vandalised graves at Poole Cemetery

12:00pm Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News

THE FAMILIES of the dead whose graves were desecrated by vandals at Poole Cemetery earlier this month will not fit the bill for the damage, Borough of Poole has confirmed.

More than 20 graves were targeted in Dorchester Road cemetery in the early hours of Sunday, February 10. Vandals kicked over headstones, breaking some in half, ripped out flower pots and threw floral tributes. The graves were all in the older part of the cemetery – around 70 to 80 years old.

It followed a similar incident at the end of January when far more recent graves, including that of a six-month-old baby, were vandalised in another part of the cemetery.

Following the most recent incident, Tim Martin, head of legal and democratic services at Borough of Poole, said: “Nearly all of the graves have been restored successfully. We did have to lay two down as they were unsafe. The bill for the works came to £500 and this money will be taken from the council’s cemeteries health and safety budget.

“The police continue to investigate and we would urge anyone with information about this vandalism to please contact them by calling 101.”