Golf Courses and Cemeteries

All in a day's work for a councillor! Planning committee approved an outline application for a new golf resort hotel at Wynyard to replace the Golf club there at present - a high quality hotel, golf course, health club and more. There's a lot of detailed design to do now but if all works out we should have the best such facility in the North East of England, right here in Stockton. Not that I can get excited about golf or health clubs but lots of people do and the Seve trophy two years ago proved how true that is of Teesside as much as elsewhere in the country.
At the other end of the borough we also approved the plans for the next stage in the regeneration of Thornaby, with new housing for Mandale. Some sadness of course for people who are losing homes into which they've invested money and/or years of their lives, but the ward councillor was full of praise for how it's been handled and we hope that they will enjoy their new homes and rebuild their communities in them.
Then it was on to my first meeting as chair of the Environment Select Committee for a background briefing on the first topic for discussion - Memorials in Cemeteries. There are some big health and safety issues related to whether modern memorials are properly secured or might topple over and injure someone! Apparently in other parts of the country this has already happened. There are also very sensitive issues over what is appropriate to put onto a grave in memory of the person whose remains are interred there - should we have teddy bears, solar lights, plastic windmills, mini fences to mention but a few? If so should there be a limit to the number or the size? Should we have edges round the plot or lawned graves to make the maintenance easy? If anyone has views on this please let me have them. We'll be collecting evidence from faith communities throughout the borough as well as Funeral Directors and memorial makers, but it's harder to reach people who don't fall into those categories.
Home then, to trawl through a mountain of post and try to sort out the issues arising from it.