The Parish Council is regularly asked why it is taking so long to open a new burial ground, so we know this is a concern for many residents. The project has been long and complicated, and has proved a significant challenge to deliver. We hope we are nearly there now though!
The need for additional burial space in Haddenham was identified many years ago when St. Mary’s Church calculated that the churchyard would soon be full. The churchyard was closed to new burials in November 2016, and the Haddenham Neighbourhood Plan, which was adopted in 2015, included a project to deliver a new burial site, and it acknowledges that to achieve this, ‘considerable planning’ would be required.
Challenge 1: Find a Suitable Plot of Land
With the proposed housing development surrounding the village, no landowners were willing to give up land that would have greater value for housing. The neighbourhood plan identified the Glebe land off Aston Road as the ideal potential location, but the land would only be given to the village as part of a new housing development. After a long planning process that involved a called-in planning application and a judicial review of the neighbourhood plan, outline planning permission was granted in 2016 for a housing development of 280 homes, with land for a new burial ground to be given to the Parish Council included within the Section 106 agreement (this is the contribution the developer is required to make for the benefit of the community). The land was then sold on to Dandara, who submitted detailed plans which were eventually finalised in 2020.
Under the Section 106 agreement, the land is transferred to the Parish Council upon completion of house building, after a two-year maintenance period, and subject to an inspection to confirm the land has been correctly laid out and is well maintained. The burial site land is within the third phase of land transfers, and Dandara have had long-term issues with their landscaper, so the transfer has been delayed due to the site not being well maintained. During a site inspection last year, a large number of dead or missing trees and hedging were identified, and the site was not in an acceptable condition to adopt. Dandara undertook to replace the trees in the autumn, but this didn’t happen. Both parties are keen to complete the land transfer, so agreement has been reached, and the Parish Council will now undertake work to plant and maintain replacement trees and hedgerows, with agreed compensation to cover these works. The legal transfer is now in progress, and we should finally own the land in the next few weeks.
Challenge 2: Environment Agency Permission
While waiting to take ownership of the land, we have been moving forward with the other elements of the project. There are strict environmental conditions that need to be met before land can be used for burials. The Environment Agency needs to be assured that the burials will not contaminate groundwater or other field drainage systems. A groundwater risk assessment needs to be carried out, which involves drilling boreholes and monitoring groundwater levels across the site. Dandara carried out groundwater monitoring soon after moving onto the site, and it was decided that, to increase the site’s potential, the ground levels needed to be raised. The levels were raised during construction work on the site using soil. The Parish Council appointed a specialist cemetery design company to use the borehole data to carry out the groundwater risk assessment, and the 230-page report was completed at the end of 2023.
Challenge 3: Do We Have Planning Permission or Don’t We?
We then started a rather extended phase with the consultants, who initially advised that the Environment Agency would only consider the groundwater risk assessment as part of a planning application. Work was started on an application; staff changes at the consultancy delayed work, and when a new person eventually picked it up, their advice changed, and so did the scope of the work. At this point, we paused work with the consultancy and decided to contact the Environment Agency directly. Thankfully, we contacted a very helpful officer. He confirmed that we do have planning permission under Dandara’s application, reviewed the groundwater risk assessment, and, after requesting that Dandara carry out another survey to confirm the new ground levels, is happy that burials will be permitted on the site.
Challenge 4: Landscape Design
The Environment Agency's final requirement is to use the site survey to produce a detailed site plan identifying burial plots suitable for double-depth, single-depth, or ashes burials. These site restrictions will feed into the overall landscape design. We are now approaching new consultants for quotes to work on this.
Challenge 5: Regulations
On a more positive note, the Parish Council has been working with representatives from the local community and has an agreed set of draft Regulations for Burials that sets out how the new burial ground will be operated.