Statement from Councillor Steve Evans, Cabinet Member for City Environment at City of Wolverhampton Council.
“Since the Government announcement, we’ve reviewed national guidance – which we only received yesterday - engaged with local faith groups and listened to feedback from local people. As a result, from Sunday (26 April), the council will be re-opening all seven city cemeteries at Beacon Hill, Bilston, Bushbury, Danescourt, Hall Green, Merridale and Penn for general visitors, under strict social distancing rules, seven-days-a-week, between 4pm to 7pm.
“We are eager to get opening hours back to normal as soon as it is safe to do so but we need to remember that, during the current crisis, our city has been hit hard. Protecting public health and life, including staff who work at our cemetery sites, has to be our number one priority.
“The decision to close cemeteries to general visitors was an incredibly difficult one, taken after we caught lots of people flouting social distancing restrictions.
“From Sunday, we will have patrols in place to ensure visitors respect our cemeteries and government social distancing rules. If this doesn’t happen, then, regrettably, we will be left with no alternative but to close our cemeteries again.
In the meantime, we would urge all visitors to be considerate and to observe social distancing measures.”
