Do they know something they are not telling?

The following article was in the Cambridge Evening News of April 2, 2007 and was circulated by an Emergency Management Network that I am a member of:

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Villages asked for extra burial plots just in case

BEMUSED villages are being asked if they can find space for mass burials in the event of a flu pandemic.

In a letter that conjures images of a plague-ridden countryside with bodies being tipped into mass graves, Cambridgeshire County Council is asking parish and town councils how much space they have left in graveyards.

The council even asks if parishes have their own grave diggers and if they would be willing to offer cut price burials in an emergency.

Parish councillors said the letter had caused a few surprised laughs but admitted it made sombre reading.

Coun Charlie Nightingale, chairman of Great Shelford Parish Council, said: "I think it's a bit of scaremongering.

"You would have thought they'd have better things to worry about, but then I guess they've got to plan for these things. We've got enough space in our cemetery for the next 30 years. It caused a stir when we read it out at parish council."

Coun Jane Coston, chairman of Milton Parish Council, due to discuss the letter tonight, said: "It's a bit bleak. The only bits of land we've got are the recreation ground and the allotments, and I don't think either of those would be suitable."

Coun Paul Oldham, vice-chairman of Milton Parish Council, added:
"Let's just hope they never need to make use of the answers they get back to a letter like this."

The letter reads: "Has the Town/Parish Council identified any additional land for burial sites for the future, or in order to cater for mass burials being required. Do you have your own grave digger(s), if so, how many? If contracted out please supply details.

"The charging policy for burials is greater than that for cremation, given the emergency situation only would you consider reducing this pricing to that of cremation, and if so what would be the implications?"

The letter is part of Cambridgeshire County Council's emergency planning in case the bird flu virus H5N1 mutates and becomes a danger to humans.

But yesterday (Sunday, 01 April) Mark Baker, the council's director of governance, said maybe the language in the letter was a little too strong.

He said: "There are no plans for digging large holes and putting people in. It is more a case of a number of individual burials in the same area.

"Rather than looking at a grave plot here and there, dotted within the existing cemetery, have they identified an extension which could take perhaps 30 or 40 burials?"

The review of burial space is the result of a pandemic flu planning exercise, operation Winter Willow. If a flu pandemic strikes, it is expected to last three or four months, during which time the death rate would treble.

Mr Baker said: "We're trying to identify if we have enough burial capacity within the county."

02 April 2007
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I just hope this is just a contingency plan and not a case of them knowing something and not telling us, the public... some food for though, eh?