‘Abuse it and lose it’ warning over Walsall parks and cemeteries

Walsall Council closed parks and cemeteries in the past couple of weeks due to the lockdown laws being ignored before reopening them this week.

But Walsall Council boss Mike Bird has warned that abuse of the facilities will see residents lose access to them once again.

Offences include sunbathing in cemeteries, football and picnics in parks and the police being called when up to 60 mourners turned up for a funeral despite only 10 being allowed.

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Earlier this week the authority closed Walsall Arboretum at the request of police before opening it back up again.

And the council has now started a trial of opening cemeteries to visitors between 8am and 10am to allow people to visit graves of loved ones.

Councillor Bird said: “There are those who are unfortunately not listening. We had people sunbathing in North Walsall Cemetery on Saturday and they thought that was fun.

“So I had to close the cemeteries and yes, I got a bit of stick but you have to make decisions on what is happening at that point in time.

“We also had funerals taking place who were trying to flout the number of 10.

“One time we had to call the police when there were 60 people coming through the pedestrian gate. So I had to lock those gates.

“On Sunday, I had to close the Arboretum after consultation with the police because people thought it would be great to have a game of football or have a picnic. Palfrey Park is another I’m dealing with.

“We’ve opened the Arboretum back up as we’ve had some conversations with the police but, as with the cemeteries, it will be a case of ‘if you abuse it you will lose it’.”