Cemetery headstone proposal shelved

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 9

Cemetery headstone proposal shelved

A suggestion to allow headstones at the Avonhead Park Cemetery has been shelved for two years by Waimairi District councillors. The chairman of the council works committee, Cr Gordon Freeman, said he was worried that in spite of publicity only 28 bodies had been buried at the 5.5 ha “parklands” cemetery since it opened a year ago. He suggested setting aside an area for more conventional headstonemarked graves but other councillors objected, saying that the concept had not been tried for long enough. Controversy surrounded the initial council decision to go ahead with the Hawthornden Road cemetery. It has provision for the burial or scattering of ashes but a metal detector is needed to identify individual graves, marked only with a metal disk beneath the

grass. Cr Freeman said that residents wanting to bury their dead in marked graves should have a closer option than the Belfast Cemetery, which the council was planning to reopen and expand as an alternative to the nearly-full Waimairi Cemetery. Cr Hazel Tait supported his recommendation. “The type of people who choose burial rather than cremation are the type of people who want some physical place to go and remember their lost ones,” she said. “I believe it is too great an investment of ratepayers’ money, for it to be used exclusively by a very small minority that appear to want that type of cemetery.” Other councillors said a lot of money had been spent on Avonhead Park Cemetery, and it was too early to make any changes. An

amendment to Cr Freeman’s recommendation, deferring the suggestion for two years, was carried, 5-4. Cr Arthur Adcock said that many of the arguments against the “parklands” cemetery had been considered' before. A lot of time had been spent on the design and concept. Cr lan Calvert said any new concept took up to 10 years to be accepted. Allowing headstones at the cemetery now would be the “thin edge of the wedge,” opening the way for more and more to “creep right across” the area. Road corner danger Improvements were needed at the intersection of Wairakei and Breens roads before it caused a fatal accident, a resident told the meeting. Mr Warren Dwight pre-

sented photographs and a detailed account of the problems he saw daily at the intersection. These included vehicles “fish-tail-ing” out of control when turning into Breens Road because of the wide-sweep-ing corner, excess speeds, and bad visibility along Wairakei Road forcing motorists turning right from Breens Road to move far out into the intersection. “It has the potential for a fatal accident,” he said. Councillors agreed that it was a dangerous comer and the district engineer, Mr A. J. W. Lamb, said provision for improving the corner might be made in this year’s council budget. However, it would have to be considered with other intersection priorities. Most motorists were observing a new 60km/h speed zone along Memorial Avenue, said Chief Traffic Officer Bob Fox. Only two had been given offence notices since last month’s introduction of the restriction, replacing the 50km/h and 70km/h limits between Greers Road and a point 600 m west of Roydvale Avenue. Waimairi traffic officers had estimated that up to 32 per cent of motorists were travelling fast enough to warrant a verbal warning, but the rest kept within the new limit. Cr Ralph Skjellerup said it proved the council’s decision to change the limit was right although he was disappointed that only 64 per cent of questionnaires sent to Memorial Avenue residents seeking their opinion had been returned.