A new cemetery will created in a Nottinghamshire area where burial grounds are 'nearly full'. The new cemetery will be created on greenbelt land off George's Lane, Calverton as well as a facilities building and car park, after plans were approved by Gedling Borough Council's planning committee on July 28.
The plan was put forward by funeral directors A.W. Lymn, who are a family-business based in Nottinghamshire. The site spans 27-acres, 17 of which will be used as burial space, along with a visual screen of native trees and shrubs that will be planted as a barrier between the cemetery and the local golf course and residential buildings.
Matthew Lymn Rose, managing director of A.W. Lymn, said: "There is an issue with burial space in particular in Gedling borough, the cemetery at Redhill is very nearly full, the cemetery at Gedling is getting full. For the residents of Gedling borough burial space is getting limited.
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"In affect it replaces a similar application on part of the same site, we already had a full application for a cemetery there in 2018 but after we got that the adjoining piece of land become available, and not only did that increase the size of the site it gave us a much better access and more options within the site to the give more choose to the families we serve.
"The application granted in 2018 has actually been enacted and we've made the most basic start to that, but the approval gives us a bigger parcel of land and a better proposal going forward."
Gedling Borough Council's Parks and Street Care department noted in a council report over the decision there was a shortage of local burial space provision in the Arnold area of the borough. They had previously expressed concerns about the need for additional cemetery land now Redhill Cemetery was full to all but ashes internments and re-openers.
Mr Lymn Rose added: "This is the first cemetery the company has had under its ownership, and we have been pushing quite hard for a quite long time to gain control over some of the other services that are traditionally outside of a funeral directors' control. Things like the crematoria and cemeteries that we deal with, we are often governed by another company or local authority who want to restrict what we are able to do.
"If a family want a service on a Sunday its for us to say yes or no, or want to buy 10 graves together for all of their family or a particularly large memorial in, that control then becomes our own."
Two representations objecting to the proposal from neighbours were received, with one arguing the development should not cross the lane that travels north to Ramsdale Hill and another stating the access was inappropriate close to the sharp bend.
Mr Lymn Rose, in response to these worries, said: "With this new application we are improving the existing access so there won't be many trees lost or an extra access from George's Lane. So we feel that is better, and we feel that the visibility is better than it was under the old application.
"The councillors on the committee did have some questions and clarifications. But the comments made by the councillors were on the whole positive."
The managing director expressed his hope the cemetery would be open by 2023. Mr Lymn Rose added: "It will be all systems go for us, we want to get this cemetery up and running as soon as we can. We are keen to get it up and running, the sooner we can open it for the local community the better.
"I would like to think by the end of the next year the crematory would be open. But having never done it before we might not know what we've come up against."
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