Ilford’s Buckingham Road Cemetery and the adjacent Ilford Cemetery have been neglected by years of indifference from officials, a campaign group has said.

Ilford Recorder: Buckingham Road Cemetery in IlfordBuckingham Road Cemetery in Ilford (Image: Archant)

The Buckingham Road Cemetery and Surroundings Interest Group has been calling since 2011 for the clean up of the graveyard, and says that members are concerned that another Remembrance Sunday will be marred for those wanting to pay their respects by the poor conditions.

A spokesman for the group said: “The cemetery is potholed, it is strewn with litter left by the contractors, alcoholic drinks cans have been left around graves, and it has the remains of arson, and dumping just left there.

“When will it be made safe?”

The graveyard, established in 1880, contains 53 First World War graves, and 29 graves from the Second World War.

Ilford Recorder: Buckingham Road Cemetery in IlfordBuckingham Road Cemetery in Ilford (Image: Archant)

According to the group, a large number of homeless people sleep there at night, making it “a frightening and dangerous place to enter”.

The spokesman said: “We wrote to Councillors Helen Coomb, Muhammed Javed and Farah Hussain, Ilford South MP Mike Gapes, and the council’s contractor, the Westerleigh Group, five weeks in advance of Remembrance Sunday.

“We still await their responses without hope of any actually having the decency to reply.

“[Local officials] ignore the repeated complaints from residents, and others based further away, who want to be able to visit in safety, as does the Westerleigh Group, which repeatedly ignores concerns which are raised to it.

“There are no details of any contract manager displayed at the cemetery to raise the failures to directly.”

Next year will mark the centenary of the burial of W.G. Scotcher in the cemetery, a First World War pilot awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry.

The group would like to see the event marked, but is worried that the cemetery’s state of dilapidation will impact upon it.

The spokesman added: “The Westerleigh Group is also responsible for other people’s graves and resting places.

“Is their idea of a suitable cremation, to leave an urn marked Dad among the

ashes and blackened surroundings?”

A Redbridge Council spokesman said work was planned to clear the cemetery ahead of Remembrance Day.

“The cemetery is squarely in the middle of the borough’s rough sleepers and street drinking hot spot.

“Redbridge police, our own enforcement officers as well as rough sleepers outreach team visit regularly to offer help and to keep order.

“Our contractors are proposing to carry out work fixing fences, repairing paths and access roads over the next few weeks; however carrying out this work is made difficult with the number of rough sleepers on site and the area needs to be cleared of litter and drug paraphernalia in advance.

“We anticipate the rubbish to be cleared by Remembrance Day.

“We have offered to meet The Buckingham Road Cemetery and Surroundings Interest Group on several occasions to discuss the situation and the group has an enforcement officer assigned to support them.”