Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie is warning persons against practising illegal reburials outside of the prescribed cemeteries in the Corporate Area.

"There are no family plots in Kingston and St. Andrew, none whatsoever! So, the man who lives up in Brandon Hill and the man who lives up in Halls Delight who believe they own 25 acres of land and figure that they can parcel out half an acre, it don't work that way, it is illegal!" Mckenzie said during Tuesday's meeting of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Parish Disaster and Public Health Committee.

The mayor's comments came after turning down a request from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) regarding the re-use of its cemetery at Up Park Camp.

The denial of the request came around the same time it was revealed to the council that persons in rural St. Andrew were making requests to the Kingston and St. Andrew Public Health Department to reuse burial grounds for development.

Addressing the JDF request, Dr. Herb Elliott, medical officer at the Kingston and St. Andrew Public Health Department, recommended that the Council turn it down on two grounds.

Lead, metal coffins

"The problem I have with it is the same problem that I had with the cholera cemetery in Kingston and in other places as, in that time, they used to bury in lead and metal coffins," he said. "And often, when you bury in this kind of coffin, you mummify the corpse and it doesn't deteriorate."

He suggested there could be a danger of the mummified corpses spreading infection when the burial grounds are disturbed.

Elliott said he was also against the re-use of the cemetery because many of the persons buried there were war heroes.

"They fought in World War I, World War II, they fought in the Crimean Wars and we brought them home and buried them as ex-soldiers and as heroes," he said. Elliott noted that the JDF had made the request because it claimed it had outgrown the space at its burial ground.

Agreeing with Elliott, Mayor McKenzie said: "Dr. Elliot, I would strongly recommend that, based on the points that you made in response to the Up Park Camp situation, that is enough grounds for you to recommend to us that we say to them that, based on the historical value of the cemetery, we can't consider that request."