Bath cemetery closes its gates as 'disrespectful' parking damages graves

A cemetery in Bath has closed its gates permanently after people kept using the site to park all day.

One vehicle even crashed into a memorial at Locksbrook Cemetery, causing it to break up and collapse onto another gravestone.

A spokesperson for the site said an "increasing" number of people have been parking at the cemetery for hours at a time or even leaving their vehicles there all day.

"Misuse of the site is disrespectful to those laid to rest, and to those visiting graves," they added.

"In the last week our worst fears were realised when memorials were damaged by a vehicle."

As a result, Bath and North East Somerset Council - which runs the site - says it has made the "difficult" decision to permanently close the main gates to prevent further damage.

Pedestrian access is still available, and there are a few parking spaces outside the gates for legitimate cemetery visitors.

A council spokesperson said: "We provide parking spaces at Locksbrook Cemetery for our visitors directly outside the front gates so it remains accessible, however in recent months we have seen a significant number of vehicles parked for several hours and many for the whole day whose drivers do not appear to be visiting the cemetery.

"Last week a vehicle collided with one of the memorials, causing it to break up and collapse onto another gravestone.

"This is wholly unacceptable and disrespectful to people’s loved-ones.

"We have taken the difficult decision to permanently close the main gates to prevent further damage as it is impossible to monitor vehicles within the cemetery.

"Cemetery visitors can continue to use the allocated parking spaces in front of the main gate and pedestrian access has been maintained.”