New bye-laws for local graveyards won’t tackle ‘monstrosities’ that have already been erected.
That was the concern of one councillor following yesterday’s decision by elected members to pass the new laws.
These regulations include ; restrictions on the size of monuments, the requirement for sculptures to hold a license to construct on the site, and possible sanctions for those who breach these laws.
However, Fianna Fail’s Roger Kennedy says he is unclear about how these laws improve things as the council had enforcement powers before and didn’t utilize them.
He says there is no clarity on what will be done if people breach these laws, or if anything can be done retrospectively on monuments that breached previous laws:
“In the local cemeteries here in Cashel and Tipperary town we have bye laws which have been largely flouted, ignored, and disregarded, over the last number of years while the council had the authority to implement particularly the height regulation… the council has taken no action and I said what authority is given in these bye laws that wasn’t given in the old bye-laws?”
One of the key changes was there will now be a list of licenced contractors who can erect monuments in local graveyards.
The issue was slightly contentious with many councillors calling for the laws to be examined and re-drafted.
However, a compromise was reached and they were passed with the condition that they are reviewed in six months’ time.
