Cemetery shock for ex-Mayor's family

10:19am Thursday 12th June 2008

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RELATIVES of a former Mayor and Mayoress were horrified when they visited their plot in the crematorium garden of Leigh cemetery.

They discovered that the pot and floral arrangment on the memorial for ex Coun George MacDonald and his wife, Doris, who were first citizens of Leigh in 1971 and Wigan Borough in 1975, had been stolen along with dozens of others from the vandalised area.

Now after reporting the distressing scene to the office she is appealing to more of the families affected to complain to the powers that be so action can be instigated to catch the heartless morons.

People can’t sink much lower than targeting the final resting places of people’s loved ones and causing such heartache for their families.

A spokesperson for Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust said: ‘We are very aware of the occasional problems of vandalism within our cemeteries and the distress that this causes. It is a problem that a small number of other borough cemetery sites and crematorium gardens have sadly been affected by in recent years’.

‘We are working closely with the police and with neighbourhood agencies in an attempt to tackle this issue and we have seen some improvement in the number of incidents reported’.

‘Where individual plots are affected by acts of vandalism we endeavour to make immediate contact with the families to make them aware of the situation’.