Resident says ‘more bluff’ in response to Cabinet’s excuse for new cemetery not being ready for burials

Three years after Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph reported that
preliminary work on the “new” public cemetery at Tomlinsons had been
completed, the Cabinet is claiming there are “a few more aspects to be taken
care of, prior to scheduling the first burial.”

“More bluff,” a recently bereaved woman tells REAL News. “[The] dead and all
getting knock-‘bout from Molwyn now.”

According to the Cabinet Notes of Thursday, June 20, a progress report on the
cemetery was delivered by both Minister of Works Maria Browne and Sir
Molwyn the day before.

They reportedly told their colleagues that, before any interment can take place
at the Tomlinsons site, an administrative building and a car park are to be
constructed first.

However, this contradicts the Cabinet report of August 24, 2023, which said the
Executive had decided to commence burials at Tomlinsons immediately, since
the St. John’s Public Cemetery was full and the Valley Community Cemetery
was nearing capacity.

Burials in the new graveyard were to begin right after the demarcated land
had been fenced and the plans for graves and buildings – not the construction
– were completed.

Since then, a concrete-and-metal fence has been erected at the front of the
site, while a chain link fence encloses the other three sides, and roads have
been cut. However, the place is nowhere ready to receive funerals.

This is despite the fact that Sir Molwyn told the Nation – in June 2021 – that all
the technical work had been completed by an American expert who had
developed the Arlington National Cemetery, along with local architects and
engineers. 

He said, then, that an initial estimate of $2 million had been put toward
infrastructure at the site – assumed to be the administration offices and the
car park –and to introduce a new technology in burials, which has since been
identified as GPS identification of the graves.

Now, to compound the delay in “immediate” burials, the Notes say that “other
aesthetic improvements, including a garden-like appearance and orderly graves
that do not have mounds” are to be pursued.

But since August last year, the Cabinet had given residents the undertaking
that “regulations are to be adopted by the Parliament … in order to ensure
that certain standards are adhered to in the new Tomlinsons Cemetery.”
This has not happened, to date, and residents are asking what excuse
Attorney-General Steadroy Benjamin and Sir Molwyn are offering for this.

Meanwhile, the promise of a crematorium – announced twice already this year –
seems to be no further along, despite the pronouncement, last year, “that
cremation will become an alternative to burial of cadavers.”
The Government’s spokesperson is now claiming that Antiguans and Barbudans
have little inclination towards cremation.

Finally, this week’s Notes say that, “provided the weather is  favourable over the
coming days, work [at the cemetery] will be amplified.”

However, apart from the cement columns of the fence having been primed, no
work has taken place at the recently flooded graveyard for weeks now.