Saltwell Cemetery has a special area/garden for the burial of babies and children. This provides a plot for our babies to rest in which loved ones take comfort in decorating beautifully with fences, memorials, flowers etc. As grieving parents this is now the only place we have to visit our children and we take joy in decorating them in our own ways especially on birthdays and Christmas. This gives parents much needed comfort and aids in the grieving process. We were shocked to see a poster put up in our babies resting place recently stating that due to complaints made about the garden being a mess, Gateshead Council are now planning on removing all memorials, placing new grass down and banning any future memorials. Meaning we are loosing all we have done for our childrens resting place to look beautiful and are not allowed to put anything down in future. We have been told we have a month to remove everything or it will be discarded.
The Gateshead Council website states “There a
Saltwell cemetery has a special area/garden in which our babies are buried. This is done free of charge for parents as is the funeral service. Gateshead council have now decided they want to rip up the fences around the plots, memorials, stones etc. we have paid for and placed for our babies and replace it all with grass. They have offered us the option of paying for the lease of the plot then for the permission for a headstone which is over £700 in total. The headstone itself is also very expensive. This will not be an option for many families and they will be left with nothing to remember their babies and for those who have spent time decorating the plots and enjoy decorating them on special occasions this will all be taken away and stopped. We cannot see any good reason for this other than to make money from grieving distressed parents. We should not have to worry about our babies resting places being destroyed and taken away and certainly should not have to put ourselves in financial difficulty to have anything for them. We have never been made aware that memorials were not permitted, please search for pictures of the babies garden and see how beautiful we have our plots for our babies and how much work has been put into them.
The petition did not reach the minimum number of signatures required to be debated at Council or be considered at an overview and scrutiny panel.
