THE Westmoreland Parish Council is hopping mad about the lack of adequate burial areas in the parish, a problem that has earned them the wrath of some of their constituents.

Councillors vented their anger at the recent monthly meeting of the local government, charging that it was time the relevant agencies approved a proposed site for a cemetery in the Sheffield division.

An obviously upset Councillor Bertel Moore (Negril Division), urged the health department to visit the existing Tate Cemetery which, he said, poses a health hazard.

The shortage in burial sites in his division, he said, had been on the council’s agenda for more than three years.

Another plan for a cemetery in Savanna-la-Mar, the parish capital, has also been on the drawing board for a number of years. But that plan had to be aborted because the housing ministry said the land on which the cemetery was to be built was earmarked for a housing development.

Now, with the Tate Cemetery fast running out of space, councillors are adamant that an alternative location has to be found as quickly as possible.

The council has also tried to source land owned by the Urban Development Corporation in the Whitehouse area of the parish. But, according to the council’s secretary manager, Patricia Stair, she had recently been informed that the land is being surveyed in preparation for a sub-division.

According to Mayor Ralph Anglin, it was his understanding that the land in question had been earmarked, not for housing, but for a traffic examination depot.

However, he said the council would wait another week for the final decision to be taken regarding the Whitehouse property.