THE statutory meeting of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has heard that farmers have been rearing pigs in the cemetery for as many as 15 years now, and have also begun slaughtering them there for sale at the Bourda Market.

Town Clerk Royston King painted a rather graphic picture of what is happening in Le Repentir Cemetery at the moment, calling to mind the many reports that circulate about broken tombs.

“Can you imagine a pig pulling at a human bone?” he asked, as he called for immediate attention to be paid to this issue.
Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said the owner of the pigs, after being told some two months ago that he has to desist from rearing his pigs there, visited her office and requested some time to move.

However, she noted that it was only recently that she heard of reports of slaughtering being done in the cemetery.
“There is no way this Council can agree that we can rear pigs in the cemetery,” Chase-Green maintained.

Councillor Heston Bostwick suggested that the farmers be removed immediately, as opposed to Councillor Oscar Clarke’s plea for leniency to be extended.

Clarke argued that it is the farmers’ livelihood and that they should first be spoken to, but the mayor reminded him that they were already asked to remove.

He said it would be heartless to simply throw them out and referred to the fact that they had been allowed for a long time without anyone objecting. He also suggested that the City Council help the farmers find an alternative location.

The mayor directed the town clerk to send a written notice to the farmers to remove either within the next seven or 14 days, after which the administration will take any action permitted by the law.