2009 Judges

Martin Birch

Having been involved within Bereavement Services for the last 15 years, Martin Birch has undertaken all related duties from ground level upwards including grave digging, grounds maintenance, cremator operation and chapel duties. Over the years, he has worked up from supervisor level to assistant manager to the more recent senior management. Martin as gained a great deal of knowledge and understanding which is extremely beneficial as a CYA judge.

Martin holds a full Diploma from the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM).He is currently the Deputy President of the institute where he sits on the Corporate Committee.

Ken West

Ken Westwas employed with the Cardiff Council between 2001 – 2003 where he held the position of Bereavement Operational Manager managing 8 cemeteries and a twin chapel crematorium handling 4,000 funerals a year. He re-tendered the Cardiff Funeral Service during this period creating the lowest cremation funeral cost in the UK.

Following his time in Cardiff, he moved on to become the Bereavement Services Manager, where he managed a crematorium and three cemeteries from 2003 until 2006.  During his time, he introduced several new initiatives. One such project included reclaiming graves in a cremation shift process designed to complete a minimum 80% of cremations through a single unit and a memorial safety inspection and renovation programme (2006). A pet cremation scheme designed to utilise spare (human) cremator capacity is currently at an advanced stage of development, and was launched in 2007. He retired from this post at the end of September 2006 after 45 years cemetery and crematorium service.

In 2007, Ken West acted as a judge for the Cemetery of the Year Awards and was an assessor on the Crematorium Technicians Training Scheme.

Kate Woodthorpe

Dr Kate Woodthorpe is a lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, where she is very involved in one of the Faculty’s most successful courses, ‘Death and Dying’.

Kate has been researching cemeteries since 2003, when she began her doctorate at the University of Sheffield under the supervision of Professor Jenny Hockey and Dr Ian Hussein. Her research took place at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium and explored how people felt about the cemetery, the bereaved’s relationships with the grave plots, staff perspectives on working in a cemetery environment and the role of the cemetery in the local community as a green space and local heritage resource.

She is particularly interested in the future of cemeteries in the UK, in terms of the increasing demand for individual expression and the pressures on cemetery spaces to be made sustainable. For serveral years, Kate has been involved with the Natural Death Centre and in April 2008 was invited to be a panel member at the London Green Funeral Exhibition.

David Quinn

David Quinn joins the CYA with a background in education. In 1998 he joined S. Critchley Memorial Masons/The Blast Shop as Manager, a position he held until 2006.

In 2006 David became a Training Officer with the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM), and is currently involved in training Masons to the required standards for the BRAMM fixers Licence.

David is a member of both the National Association of Memorial Masons’ Technical Committee & Training Committee.

Nicholas Thomas

From 1993 to 1998, Nicholas Thomas was a self-employed subcontract memorial mason. During his time as a subcontract mason, his responsibility was to plan, produce and fix memorials to the very highest of standards, always keeping in mind that safety is of paramount importance.

Establishing Vale Memorials in 1998, he now owns and runs the business selling memorials directly to the public. As the proprietor of Vale memorials he has sole responsibility for strategic planning, sales and the running of two workshops with two employees. Nick is extremely involved with the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM) and currently sits on the NAMM’s general council as a voting delegate for his region. He is also an assessor for NVQ in stone masonry and as well as an assessor for the British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons (BRAMM). It is in these roles that Nick has become familiarised with the Charter for the Bereaved.

Maggie Bardzinski

Maggie joined St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1989 where she managed two cemeteries, one in Bury St Edmunds and the other in Haverhill. Aside from managing these sites, she was also responsible for six closed churchyards. In 1995, she gained her IBCA Diploma and became the Education Officer with the Local Branch.

During her time, part of her remit was to design and implement new areas for the disposal of cremated remains, make as much use as possible of the dwindling land available and to enable more choice of graves.  Having retired from the industry in early 2008, Maggie is now enjoying more leisure time.

John O'Callaghan

John O’Callaghan began his career in the private sector before joining Greater London Council in 1974 as Work Study Officer.

Following years of employment within Suffolk District Council, John was appointed by Exeter City Council as Support Services Manager, a position he held for nine years before becoming the Bereavement Services Manager in 1997. While responsible for the Cemeteries Service and management of sites, as well as the development of policy on current issues in bereavement care, John established Exeter City Council as a Charter for the Bereaved Member and set up a woodland burial site. Since 2008 John has been a self-employed consultant working in Cemeteries Management.

John holds the Diploma from the Institute of Burial and Cremation Administration and is trained in ICCM Memorial Inspection. He was Director of the ICCM until November 2008 and is an accredited consultant for the organisation. John has recently become a director of South West Cemetery Services.

David Ewen MacColl

David Ewen MacColl started his career working in horticulture for District Councils before moving onto private gardening and landscaping.

In 1997 David joined North Ayrshire Council as Cemeteries Services Manager, a position he currently holds. Over the years he has been responsible for projects such as the installation of an effective, centralised burial administration and the modernisation of burial. In this position, David has full responsibility for thirty burial grounds staff and three administrative posts who provide the Council’s 1,200 annual services. David has also worked on introducing woodland burial areas in the Council’s newer cemeteries, managing the creation of Gardens of Remembrance for Babies and Cremated Remains in these sites, developing training programmes for staff and embarking on a full inspection process in line with Health and Safety Executive requirements.

David holds Qualifications in Management of Memorials and Understanding Bereavement, Scottish Law on Burial and Cremation Cemetery Management from the ICCM, and is a Fellow of the ICCM.

Ron Dunn

Ron Dunn’s background in horticulture stems from his formal parks management training at the IPRA (now ISPAL) staff college in Goring, near Reading. He worked for many years in parks,cemetery and crematorium management before adding street cleansing, waste management and building cleaning to his range of responsibilities. It is this experience that has gained him valuable knowledge of the operation of local authorities at all levels.

In 2002, Ron joined the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM) as the Director of Training and Development, a position he held for over six years. During this time, he was responsible for the development of education, training and consultancy services within the ICCM, gaining great insight into the operation of bereavement services throughout the UK. He also has direct involvement in ICCM projects such as the national recycling of metals scheme, the new customer care programme and many more.

Ron holds a Diploma of the IPRA, a Diploma of the Institute of Recreation Managers and the Intermediate Diploma of the IBCA (now ICCM). He is currently Managing Director of Dunn&Co, a company providing specialist training and consultancy to burial and cremation authorities and private businesses.

Peter Armstrong

Peter Armstrong comes to CYA with a background in horticultural developed through his time spent working with various Parks Departments in Surrey, Dorset and Hampshire, as well as running his own landscape/gardening business for nine years.

In 2001 Peter started work with Test Valley Borough Council, where he was Parks Development Officer, responsible for the management of cemeteries and open spaces. His work included; the inspection of open spaces, trees, cemetery maintenance. He was also involved with the yearly opening of one of their cemeteries and its Victorian chapels for the National Heritage Open Day.

In 2005 Peter moved to Havant Borough Council as Cemeteries Manager, where he is currently responsible for three cemeteries and three closed churchyards. In this role, he has overseen the implementation of a new extension with its own drainage and pumping station, which meets the guidelines from the Environment Agency. This cemetery also has a natural burial area. A recent project has involved working with the Probation Service in restoring Havant Borough Council’s oldest cemetery.

Peter is also a trained Minister of Religion and has officiated at a number of funerals.