Prisoners to be asked to do work at a Doncaster cemetery

Hatfield Town Council is in talks with the prison authorities about the possibility of using prisoners to carry some of the work which they hope will make the cemetery in the village a tidier and more relaxing place.

The authority agreed to make inquiries about the inmates doing work at the site on Cemetery Road at its recent meeting.

Town council clerk Clare McRoy said: "We are hoping to enhance the peace garden at the cemetery. We're hoping to do some clearance work and then some enhancement of that.

"It is intended that it will be a better place for people to take a moment to reflect. The peace garden is not used as much as we'd hoped.

"We've not finalised our exact wishes yet but we want to make it look nicer and would be our staff working with prisoners.

"There have been talks with the prison authorities through a community liaison officer. There have been a couple of meetings and we've taken them to have a look.

"The seem quite keen to be involved so hopefully it will come together over the next couple of months."

More improvement work is also planned elsewhere in the cemetery on the trees.

The work would be carried out on the front of the cemetry to tidy up the sycamore trees in that part of the site, which are starting to hang close to people's driveways.

Ms McRoy said the work on the trees were planned within the next month, although they would have to work until the end of the nesting season, to protect wildlife, before work could start.