'Utmost respect' to be offered in grave reuse plan

The possible reuse of about 900 graves will "be treated with the utmost respect", a council leader has confirmed.

Bishop's Stortford Town Council was given permission in March 2024 to reuse plots as it said it could run out of space by 2036.

The Hertfordshire authority has published a formal notice about the changes that could affect the Old Cemetery in the market town.

Councillor Miriam Swainston said: "There are strict protocols to ensure every effort is made to contact families and seek permission to reuse graves more than 75 years old."

The council said: "The powers are subject to certain conditions and protections for relatives of the deceased including a requirement to post specified notices."

It gives Bishop's Stortford Town Council powers to "lift and deepen" graves if those plots are at least 75 years old.

Swainston said reusing graves "will enable current and future residents to bury their loved ones in the town and easily visit their graves".

"Many graves are untended but even these will be treated with the utmost respect if it becomes necessary to reuse them," she added.

"The purpose is to serve the current community, not to ignore our heritage."

A Friends of the Cemetery group would help ensure it remained "the beautiful, serene place that it is, to enable future generations to pay respects to their lost loved ones there", she said.

The designated area is in the Old Cemetery, where the "oldest" graves are located, dating back to before 1949 - with many dating back to the 1800s, the council said.

Exclusive burial rights will be "extinguished on or soon after 15 October 2026" but if a notice of objection by the burial site owner is made, no removal or disturbance of human remains will take place until 25 years has expired from the date of objection, it said.

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