Please remove Christmas wreaths from cemeteries this month

To allow ongoing maintenance of the cemeteries and crematorium grounds managed by Cheshire West and Chester Council, grave owners and visitors are asked to remove all Christmas tributes and wreaths by Sunday, 12th February.

Anyone who wishes to dispose of or keep their Christmas tributes will need to remove them from the cemetery grounds and burial plots by this date.  Cemetery staff will then begin to remove any remaining Christmas tributes from Monday, 13 February.

The reason for the removal of the tributes is to allow grass cutting to take place from early March.

Wreaths and tributes will be removed from the grounds of:

• Blacon Cemetery / Chester Crematorium, Chester
• Overleigh Cemetery, Chester
• Overpool Cemetery, Ellesmere Port
• Neston Cemetery, Neston
• Wharton Cemetery, Winsford

At Chester Crematorium, Christmas tributes and any other memorial items not issued by the Council that have been placed in the Garden of Remembrance areas, and also adjacent to the Book of Remembrance Room, will be removed from Monday, 13 February. This is to ensure that these areas can be enjoyed as peaceful areas of contemplation by everyone.

The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore said: “The Council understands that the removal of Christmas tributes is extremely sensitive and this is why grave owners and visitors are being given early notice, so that they may remove their own Christmas tribute should they wish.”

The Council does not remove wreaths from private churchyards.