Work on water-hit Ayr graves complete as focus turns to Troon's burial grounds

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Work to exhume bodies from water-logged graves at South Ayrshire's largest burial ground have ended, council chiefs have confirmed.A specialist team led by expert exhumer Peter Mitchell have carried out the delicate task to remove and then rebury loved ones at Ayr Cemetery.Officials have this week confirmed that all occupied lairs at the Holmston Road graveyard have concluded.

It comes more than two years since a probe made the grim discovery that all 126 graves at the newest 'extension' area of the huge cemetery were all water logged.Now attention will turn to a second South Ayrshire crisis-hit cemetery which requires the same painstaking task to be carried out.Preparation work has already begun at Troon Cemetery, where Mitchell's team will soon carry out a second batch of exhumations.A total of 87 lairs in Troon have faced the same water problems as Ayr, with 51 currently occupied and 36 unoccupied.Mitchell and his specialist crew will soon descend on the Dundonald Road facility, with machinery and fencing already being set up.A council spokesperson said: "Work on all occupied chambers in Ayr Cemetery are complete, and the specialist team are now working to modify all unoccupied chambers for future use. "Fencing is currently being put up at Troon Cemetery extension in preparation of the commencement of rectification works.

We will continue to liaise directly with families.”It comes more than two years since the alarm was first raised that water was leaking from chambers at the newest 'extension' part of the cemetery.In 2022 families then told Ayrshire Live how they were put "through hell and torture" as they blasted South Ayrshire Council over the handling of the scandal.Families slammed bosses for 'copy and paste'