A HAVERFORDWEST cemetery is now safe and secure having been fitted with brand new iron gates.

The town council has forked out around £12,000 for the gates at St Martin’s Cemetery after a road accident a few years back damaged the old ones.

The new gates were put up at the City Road cemetery around three weeks ago by local ironworks contractor Kevin Rees.

Town councillor for the Garth ward, Christopher Thomas, said: “I joined the council in May 2013 and the subject of the cemetery gates kept coming up at council meetings.

“They were an ongoing saga. In the end I was appointed to take it up and run with it.”

As the old gates were grade two listed, the town council and the contractor had to work closely with Cadw, which insisted the gates’ design be like the original.

Cllr Thomas said: “Kevin worked from a 10 year-old photograph to recreate the original design.

“The town council is very pleased with the result.”

St Martin’s Cemetery is maintained by the town council, but it is facing an uphill task with the grass overgrown, invasive weeds and trees beginning to grow over the stone walls.

Cllr Thomas said it is going to take a lot of work to bring it up to scratch.

“We maintain the cemetery from about half way down. We simply haven’t got the time to do it all. We are trying to get some voluntary services to come in and help us out."

He added: “You can’t have brand new gates and the rest of the area falling down.”

The cemetery is home to the grave of First World War soldier Lance Corporal William John Peterson. He had served during the Great War as a machine gunner and died in hospital in Cardiff in 1919 at the age of 22. It is thought he was wounded during the end of the war.