Helston’s parish churchyard has been left looking “unkempt and uncared for” but any attempt to tidy it by volunteers is met with “disapproval” by Cornwall Council.

This was the claim made when the state of St Michael’s churchyard was discussed at last week’s meeting of the town council.

Michael Thorne, representing the church council, said as a “closed churchyard” its upkeep was the responsibility of Cornwall Council rather than the church.

“To save money, Cornwall Council has recently reduced the number of maintenance visits per year from five to three and three is proving to be totally inadequate.

“Most of the time it just looks unkempt and uncared for,” he said.

Mr Thorne added that he understood an agreement had been made where Helston Town Council and St Michael’s Church would each pay for an additional cut, to bring the total back to five again, but so far this year only two visits had been made – the second only having just been completed, six months into the year.

“It’s a heavily used public footpath and very much in the public eye. The church is used for weddings, funerals and civic events, and in the summer particularly families come looking for family graves and memorials.

“The church gets the flack about this, for the poor state of the churchyard, but actually it’s not our responsibility. In the past our efforts to tidy it up by volunteers has met with some disapproval from Cornwall Council,” he said.

Town clerk Chris Dawson confirmed that there was an agreement to bring the total number of cuts to five per year and said the matter was on the agenda for the next meeting of the council’s amenities committee.

In the meantime he would speak with Cormac, Cornwall Council’s contractor that carries out the work, to establish what schedule it works to.

Speaking as a Cornwall Councillor, Mike Thomas said he believed it was “just a breakdown of communication” that had led to this.

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council told the Packet: "Cormac carry out three cuts per year on behalf of Cornwall Council and these are generally scheduled for Feb/March, July/Aug and Nov/Dec.

"The second cut was completed last week. Last year there was an agreement for Cormac to do two additional cuts which were paid for by the town council, this agreement has not been renewed this year. 


"Cormac work with volunteer groups and encourage participation. Recently a local volunteer group did some planting on the site, though we do insist on seeing risk and method statements and also training certificates if machinery is to be used."