The issue first came up on January 27, on Facebook. Someone was kind enough to alert me to the FB discussion and I contacted the general manager to ask about the situation.

Some people on FB were good enough to note that council usually keeps the Wauchope cemetery pretty tidy, so there must be some sort of problem going on.

Other people weren’t so fair-minded, trotting out old chestnuts about council being lazy and nothing ever being done west of the highway. That’s so yesterday.

If we’d all only stop and think for a moment, we’d see that council isn’t some alien organisation, but is in fact made up of people just like us who also live and love in our local area.

It’s just a nonsense to suggest that the people in council do not care.

In the case of the cemetery, I now know that various problems arose for the parks and gardens teams after Christmas, and by the end of January they were quite behind on schedule across the whole Hastings.

The problems were largely resolved by the end of January, and by 30 January the cemetery was being tended to – and now looks great again.

In answer to those who have asked me, there are 11 cemeteries in the Hastings.

The five main cemeteries – Comboyne, Kendall, Laurieton, Port Macquarie, Wauchope – are mown every four weeks during peak mowing season and as required in the cooler months.

When looking at the Wauchope cemetery, it seemed that part of the problem is from fast-growing weeds, and I’ve since discussed with council the benefit of some additional weed control.

So, thanks to local residents for raising the problem and to council for responding so quickly.

These are Cr Intemann’s opinions and not necessarily council’s.