Cemeteries Memorial Management Update
North Lanarkshire Council · 24 August 2022
Back to Environment and Place Committee — 24 August 2022 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Environment and Place Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref NP/VA/CK Date 24/08/22 Cemeteries memorial management update From Nicole Paterson, Head of Environmental Assets E-mail abernethyv@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 402080 Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to provide an update on memorial management across the authority and to outline proposed improvements to cemetery infrastructure management. Recommendations It is recommended that the committee • Endorse progress in making safe known memorial risks • Endorses the commencement of a new inspection regime in 2023 to cover all memorials to an agreed timescale, detail of which will be brought to committee in Cycle 1 2023 The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities Ambition statement (17) Ensure we keep our environment clean, safe, and attractive
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1. Background 1.1 Previous reports to Environment and Transportation Committee most recently in February 2020 highlighted the issue of progress towards inspecting and remediating cemeteries memorials across the authority with 20,904 memorials inspected of the estimated 90,000 memorials in cemeteries. The inspected memorials represent the highest risk memorials (generally by height) and of these 4,680 required to be made safe. 1.2 These memorials have been temporarily remediated by banding or fencing, but a permanent safety solution (most commonly trenching or lying flat) needs to be implemented to remove all risk from these memorials. 1.3 During 2020/2021 the full cemeteries manpower resources were deployed to dealing with the pandemic demands further delaying progress on memorial safety. 2. Report 2.1 In 2021 additional resources were awarded to the service to enable a permanent safety solution to be implemented more quickly for these known memorial risks and ensure the wider cemetery asset is improved in safety. 2.2 During 2022 the memorial safety team has been expanded to 5 operatives and 1 supervisor to accelerate progress. 2.3 The following progress has been achieved since March 2022 • New Monklands cemetery - All fenced stones trenched - completed April 2022 • Kilsyth Cemetery All fenced stones trenched – completed June 2022 • Airbles Cemetery - trenching commenced June 2022 The work scheduled to March 2023 is shown below: • Holytown cemetery – commence trenching September 2022 • St Patricks cemetery -commence trenching December 2022 • Bothwellpark cemetery - commence trenching March 2023 Updated memorial policy 2.3 The above work programme will remove a substantial part of the current risk the council holds for memorial safety and is the current focus of the memorial squads work. From March 2023 we will instigate an ongoing inspection and remediation policy aiming to mitigate memorial risk as it is discovered. 2.4 The service will bring forward a full memorial policy to cycle 1 2023 to outline the revised policy. The new policy will be reviewed against Scottish Government guidance in this respect, issued in 2019. The revised policy will include improvements to the inspection process brought forward through the current delayed Digital NL sprint. 3. Measures of success
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3.1 Memorial safety mitigation of current known unsafe stones is completed on schedule An updated memorial policy is brought to committee in Cycle 1 2023. 4. Supporting documentation n/a Nicole Paterson Head of Environmental Assets
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☒ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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The memorial inspection programme is part of the current Digital sprint in Environmental Assets and digital solutions are being identified to improve the inspection and remediation process Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? Progress on memorial remediation and forward planning has reduced a key service risk