A WOMAN who has regularly visited her mother's grave for the past 17 years says she was left devastated when the Aldershot cemetery in which she is buried was padlocked shut on Christmas Day.

Vicky Raison, 63, was forced to climb over railings to lay a wreath on her mum's grave, after she and several others were unexpectedly locked out of the Redan Road cemetery.

Mrs Raison's daughter said more than a dozen heartbroken people who wanted to visit their loved ones' graves were stranded outside the cemetery on Christmas morning.

Jane Biscombe, who described the situation as 'heartbreaking', said she had to help push some people over the railings, so they could get the access they wanted.

Rushmoor Borough Council, which looks after the cemetery, has now apologised to those who were affected and said it was never the council's plan to close the gates.

Mrs Raison, who has recently had a hip replacement, said: "Luckily my husband was there to give me a push up, because if he was not there I would not have been able to do that.

"It would have broken my heart if I had not been able to put a holly wreath on her grave.

"My dad, mum, aunt and uncle are all buried in that cemetery and I have gone and visited every Christmas day and birthday for 17 years.

"It is one of the most important days to be able to see your loved one, so we just could not believe it when we saw the gates were padlocked."

Mrs Raison, who lives on Cedar Road, Farnborough, said the situation was made worse because there were no signs explaining why the cemetery was shut.

Mrs Biscombe, 39, who lives in Aldershot, said she personally helped five people over the railings.

Another twelve had managed to climb over already, but a remaining four people could not get over, she said.

She said: "I comforted two crying people, by saying their loved ones would know they were there and that had been there with them on Christmas Day, just the same.

"Every Christmas I go to visit my grandparents and to be denied this was shocking.

"I was lucky that I could climb the fence but it was heartbreaking to see the distress and tears of those who were old or disabled or just not able to get over the railing.

"Discrimination such as this is shameful."

Ashley Sharpe, principal contracts manager at the council, said the council had intended to leave the cemeteries open throughout the Christmas period.

Usually the cemeteries are closed at night and reopened in the morning. But Mr Sharpe said the first the council knew of the locked gates was when a member of the public called on Christmas Day, at 11.11am, to say they were closed.

Within ten minutes, the council's bereavement services manager Kelly Chambers had reopened the gates, he said.

Mr Sharpe said he had asked contractors and other council workers what had happened, but no-one could shed any light.

He said it was possible a member of the public, who is used to seeing the cemetery closed at night, shut the gates, thinking they were helping out.

He said: "We would apologise for any inconvenience.

"It would never have been our intention to deny people access to their loved ones' grave sides.

“We do recognise that Christmas is a key day for those who have lost loved ones.

"As a bereavement service, we are obviously not happy with leaving people in that sort of state."

Site navigation

• Home
• News
• Business
• Sport
• Entertainment
• Lifestyle
• Jobs
• Property
• Motoring
• Classifieds

• A A