RE your letter, headed Shame on Darlington, from Judith Howell (HAS, July 1), who was shocked by the state of the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church, Woodland Road, Darlington, during a visit last month.
The headline should have read: Shame on Darlington Borough Council. The council is wholly responsible for the upkeep of the churchyard.
They plant up the gardens beautifully, and cut the grass, and last summer they cut back some of the lower branches of some of the trees after repeated requests from the church.
In February of this year the council was asked to look at the crumbling state of the footpath in the churchyard. The civil engineer arranged for photographs to be taken so they could assess the damage. We have heard nothing since then. A repeat phone call was made in June, but we appear to be no further forward getting the footpath repaired.
We, at Holy Trinity, would love to see our churchyard cleaned up. Between us we do our best to keep the rubbish down, but the council needs to honour its responsibilities.
Gillian Black, Churchwarden, Holy Trinity Church, Darlington.
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