City Hall and Undertaker still at odds despite court ruling

The dead will sleep, but it seems that the fight between undertakers and Belize City Council will not rest anytime soon. Earlier in the year, City Hall attempted to streamline its services at the Lord Ridge and Eternal Garden cemeteries but that meant that undertakers would lose some of the services they offered. David Coye, the undertaker who is known to most families in Belize City, sought judicial review of City Hall’s decision to bar private undertakers from constructing graves, and installing tombstones.  Coye won that decision last week. The judge ordered that, “the claimant/applicant is and continues at liberty to continue to provide funeral services at the Lord Ridge and Eternal Garden cemeteries in the normal course of his business including undertaking construction and/or installing common graves, enclosed graves, reopening of graves, vaults/mausoleums and erecting tombstones.” But Coye attempted to carry out his services today for a grieving family and he was prevented by a City Hall employee. News Five spoke to Coye and he said that a woman known to him as Miss Saldivar is now in charge of the cemeteries. She stopped him from carrying out his work, despite the court order. According to Coye, he was told that the Mayor is yet to decide how undertakers would operate at the cemetery. It is unclear how the particular family’s funeral arrangements will be executed tomorrow, without the undertaker of their preference.