A cemetery toilet block has become a risk to the public, a meeting of the Sutton and Merton Joint Cemetery Board heard on Tuesday (June 5).

The panel heard how the ceiling of the toilet block at the cemetery in Garth Road, Morden, was coming down.

Mark Robinson, registrar at the cemetery which is managed by service provider Idverde, said it was Merton Council’s responsibility to deal with the problem, and that it had been reported to the council’s green space team.

Merton Councillor John McGrath said: “It seems a bit odd there there is a report saying something is dangerous but we are not doing anything about it.”

Cabinet member for community and culture Nick Draper described the problem as unacceptable.

Cllr Draper said: “I am the cabinet member for green space and I take this very seriously I don’t consider a situation where we have toilets with the ceiling falling down in any way acceptable.

“Funerals are not cheap and it is a distressing and stressful time. I do not think it is right they should have to put up with problems in the toilet block.”

Cllr Moral agreed adding that both councils would work together to sort it out.

Also discussed at the meeting was a problem with littering at the graveyard.

Contract director at Idverde Russ Kirk said trials of new bins were being carried out at other graveyards to address the problem.

He said it was more a problem of large items not being able to fit through the small gaps on the current bins, meaning people leave rubbish on the ground.

“What we were finding is some of the wreaths were too big to go into the bins,” said Russ.

“We are trialling some ‘dumpy bins’ with less bins but bigger capacity. “They will be black or green colour so they will blend in.”