CEMETERY EXTENSION AS BURIAL PLOTS RUNNING OUT

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Cemetery extension as burial plots running out

A cemetery will be extended to help prevent a burial crisis in the city.Some 1,000 new plots will be created at Saffron Hill Cemetery by Leicester City Council as part of a £450,000 extension.

The city is rapidly running out of burial space and the move will create enough space at the cemetery for the next 10 years.

Adrian Russell, the council's director of environmental services, backed the extension.

He said: "As everyone knows, our cemeteries are quickly filling up and we're running out of burial space in the city.

"This extension, on land already owned by the council, will allow the cemetery to continue operating for another decade.

"It's a relatively short-term solution, but, later in the year, we'll be examining the options open to us to deal with the issue in the much longer term."

Councillors have previously floated the idea of creating a new graveyard outside the city boundary, because of the lack of suitable land within the city boundaries.

Tony Donovan, executive director of Age UK in Leicestershire, said: "The extension is good news because so many people who were born and raised in Leicester want to be buried here in the city and not outside in the county somewhere.

"Having burial sites within the city makes it easier for local people to visit the graves of loved ones.

"If new sites were created out in the county, it would mean longer journeys by public transport for many visitors, who are often older people."

Saffron Hill cemetery is Leicester's second-largest burial site and serves the south of the city.

It has a general burial area for traditional lawn graves, a small Polish burial area, a children's section and a Muslim cemetery with prayer house.

The cost of the extension includes landscaping, roads, drainage and paving.

Kenny Hill, 62, from New Parks, said: "When you've grown-up in a city you want to be buried there when you die, but if the space runs out then I'd have to get buried somewhere else and I don't think I'd like that idea.

"I think it's good news the cemetery is being extended."

Margaret Sinton, 70, from Spinney Hills, said: "It's great that they're extending the cemetery but there are more old people around than ever before so what is a problem now will eventually become a crisis."

The city's main burial site – Gilroes Cemetery – was recently extended across eight acres of farmland.

The other two sites in the city are Belgrave Cemetery and Welford Road cemetery.

The work at Saffron Hill will be completed within two years.

LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL BUDGET CONSULTATION

At Leicester City Council, B Block, New Walk Centre, King Street (Directorate Meeting Room, 8th floor) for a consultation meeting on the City Council's proposed budget. Not far to travel from the site of my last meeting this time, as it's in the very same room.

This meeting has been convened by Irene Kszyk, Corporate Equalities Lead at Leicester City Council, to give invited representatives of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations the opportunity to discuss concerns about  the City Council's budget proposals and the summary equality impact assessments in each of the service areas.

As well as Leicester Council of Faiths, there are four other organisations round the table, meeting with Irene:

• Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland
• Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre
• Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living
• The Race Equality Centre

Collectively and individually we make a number of observations and recommendations, that Irene can take away and incorporate into the next stage of this process.

REPORT CRITICISES STATE OF PRAYER ROOM

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Report criticises state of prison prayer room 

Leicester Prison needs to upgrade its bathrooms and improve the state of an area where Muslim inmates pray, according to a new report. 

The comments were made in a report by The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at HMP Leicester, whose volunteers oversee conditions in prisons across England and Wales. 

The board also praised much about the prison, in Welford Road, including improvements made to its cells and the forming of a dedicated mental health team. 

Board members, who have access to every inmate and every part of the prison, report every year to the Secretary of State on the standard of provision and care for prisoners. 

The latest report covers February 2010 to January 2011. 

The board criticised the "poor state of repair and cleanliness" of the prison's Association Room, which is used for Muslim prayers. 

Suleman Nagdi, chairman of the Federation of Muslim Organisations in Leicestershire, said the group had worked closely with the prison over many years and was "grateful that it caters for the needs of Muslim prisoners". 

He said: "It must be remembered that encouraging them to practise their faith can be an important part of their rehabilitation. 

"I don't want to criticise the prison too much because I realise circumstances are often difficult, but I would encourage the prison to do everything possible to ensure that provision for Muslim prisoners is adequate." 

The report said a bathroom where elderly and infirm inmates bathe or shower was "unfit for purpose". 

Tony Donovan, chief executive of Age UK Leicestershire and Rutland, said that fact was "disappointing", but added: "While things can always be better, we've seen improvements in provisions for older prisoners." 

Achievements highlighted included the introduction of a course aimed at reducing violence, and an increased awareness of special needs. 

The report also praised the fact there had been no self-inflicted deaths during the year.
The prison was built in 1828. It is designated for adult males and is classed as Category B, meaning offenders do not require maximum security. 

It can hold a maximum of 390 inmates but currently houses between 330 and 360. 

Prison Governor Alison Clarke said: "We thank the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Leicester for their report, which has been fully considered by ministers. 

"The prison is working on a number of areas raised in the report." 

To view the report, visit: www.imb.gov.uk

EREN STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING

To London this morning, for a meeting of the English Regions Equality Network (EREN). I'm travelling with Dee Martin (Chief Exec of Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living and first/past Chair of the Regional Equality and Partnership). Dee is currently Co-Chair of EREN.

The meeting is being held at Age UK on Pentonville Road. I'm last to enter the meeting room and make a slightly more memorable entrance than I'd like by forcefully and noisily pulling on a door clearly marked "push".

There are 14 of us here in all. from pan-equalities groups working in different regions: London, East Midlands, West Midlands, North East, North West, South West. Each of us has our own particular area of interest within equalities work. We also have representation from the Equality and Diversity Forum.

The session is facilitated by Ange Jones, from the National Equalities Partnership. She begins by setting us an interesting icebreaker activity, in which we speak with the person sitting next to us, and say what we're like when we're at our best. After ten minutes we have a list of qualities, including the following: action-based; balanced; challenging; charming; creative; debonair; enthusiastic; facilitative; focused; giving constructive criticism; having a vision of the future; honest; hopeful; inclusive; laughing a lot; listening to others; non-judgmental; pragmatic; respectful; seeing links others don't; sensitive. These are the qualities we're asked to draw on throughout the day in our interactions here. (We do, of course, spend the same amount of time talking to the person next to us about we're like when we're at our worst, come up with a list of those qualities and are asked to steer clear of that way of doing things in this meeting.)

Paul Dunn (Co-Chair of EREN and CEO of Equality South West) gave an introduction to the short but fruitful history of EREN and positioned it within the current social, political and economic landscape - what some might describe as "flux", while others might call it "slash and burn". He set the task of the day as our need to discuss how we might sustain the network, how we might move on. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has funded EREN for the next 12 months, though it is unclear precisely what it wants EREN to do in that time. GEO's own agenda for the regions is not clear. All we can say at present is that funding EREN for a year appears to be their regional agenda (if that sounds a bit circular or confusing, then I have conveyed it accurately). There's a sense of urgency about the meeting. Is it useful to look at what EREN has done in the past, how it has done it? Or should we think of the present as Year Zero, since things around us have changed so much, so quickly?

We start our work proper with the question, "What do we need EREN to be now - and for the future?" After brainstorming some key words for a few minutes, we divide into three groups and spend a quarter of an hour juggling some of those words to come up with a sentence that says what EREN is all about. Our gang of four experiments with diagrams and flow charts before coming up with "The vehicle between policy and practice within and across the regions". Another group has "Promoting equality voices nationally". The third group doesn't come up with one of their own. After lunch we try to blend those two sentences into one - but we don't quite manage it.

In our small groups again, we undertake a SWOT analysis of EREN. For the uninitiated, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Our group is asked to consider opportunities and threats. We come up with a whole lot more of the former than the latter. I can't believe that we're being naive about this or hiding our heads in the sand, but among the challenges that lie ahead, some of us can see a real chance to help set the agenda and push for real progress in the equalities field. Some people and organisations might be able to do no more than lay down and die; others might be deliberately killed off. But some are going to survive - not just that, but thrive. We need to learn to speak a new language, work with the new conditions, rather than against them, to go with the flow rather than try and turn back the tide.