Response to Questions about the Cemetery

Response to residents’ questions and concerns in relation to the management of the Cemetery, raised at the Parish Council Meeting 21^st March 2024.

 

Can you explain what the benefits of the change of permissions in the cemetery in relation to putting restrictions on what can be put on a grave in the “lawn” area of the cemetery actually achieves? The cemetery is currently ¾ full leaving only a small area left for new graves. The majority of the cemetery already has kerb sets so there is no huge benefit from putting these restrictions on a small area.

The current cemetery rules relating to the installation of memorials and what can and can not be placed on grave plots are informed by policy decisions made by the Parish Council in 2018.

When a new burial area had to be opened up for burials in 2018, Parish Council made a decision that all new burial areas in the cemetery would be designated as lawn burial area, where the only type of memorial permitted was a headstone.

These decisions were made as part of a much broader review of the overall management of the cemetery that had begun in 2015 following the appointment of a new parish clerk and a majority of new parish councillors.

It was apparent that the overall appearance of the cemetery at that time was poor. This view was also held by a number of residents who had made complaints to the council about the untidy and unkempt state of the cemetery.

The Parish Council understands the importance of the cemetery to those living in the parish who have loved ones buried there, and to those who may wish to visit or have a burial there in the future, as a way of remembering and paying tribute to their loved ones.

The Parish Council also understands it has a number of statutory requirements it has to comply with regarding how the cemetery is managed.

The management of the cemetery is governed by Local Authorities’ Cemetery Order 1977(LACO)and the Health and Safety Act 1974 (HASA).

Under LACO, the Parish Council has a general duty to keep the cemetery in good order and under the HASA it has a duty of care to do all that is reasonably practicable to ensure that all visitors and those working in the cemetery are not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Compliance with these statutory obligations is therefore the priority consideration under which the Parish Council determines its policies, procedures and rules relating to the management of the cemetery.

LACO does not prescribe how these obligations should be met. Consequently, the Parish Council may do all such things as it considers necessary or desirable for the proper management, regulation and control of the cemetery. This includes:

• Making arrangements for effective maintenance of the whole site. This includes, grounds management, waste disposal, repair & maintenance of any fences or buildings.

• Creating a pleasant and safe environment for burials, friends and relatives, and all visitors

• Determining polices in relation to the burial environment. This includes making decisions on:

• • what type of burial plots can be provided in different areas of the cemetery e.g., cremated remains, traditional or lawn burial areas.

• • what is allowed and what is not allowed in the cemetery. This includes memorial installations and other types of memorabilia that can be placed on graves, which will vary depending on what type of grave plot is purchased.

• • fees for burial plots and related services.

• • whether or not grave plots can be purchased in advance so as to reserve a plot for future use.

As a burial authority, the Parish Council can review and amend its policies without any need for community consultation, subject to compliance with statutory requirements.

Under this statutory framework, the Parish Council must also plan ahead and give consideration to:

• Forecasting the future demand for burial plots and those potentially available so as to estimate the longevity of the site.

• The financial implications of the cost of maintaining the cemetery in good order over the longevity of the site and the potential level of income that the cemetery generates from fees.

• There is an expectation that all cemeteries should be run as commercial activities and should strive to be self-financing, with the cost of creating and maintaining cemeteries being met from the income that they generate. However, it is recognised that this may not always be achievable as costs, the demands for plots and the affordability of fees will differ from site to site. Consequently, there is provision within the legal framework for Parish Council’s to subsidise the cost of managing the cemetery from its mainstream fund, the precept (Local Government Act 1972).

To help the Parish Council fulfil its statutory obligations, on the advice of Durham County Council bereavement services, it commissioned a specialist cemetery development company (CDS Ltd)to carryout an independent review of the cemetery in 2016.

This review provided advice on a number of issues to help inform future actions and policy decisions. These included:

• Provision of a detailed contract specification for regular grounds maintenance.
• Demolition of the old Sexton’s hut (adjacent to the area that was being used for burials at that time).
• Working with owners of the Exclusive Right of Burial (referred to as grave owners) to help them take action to make good any repairs to installations, that were or could become a safety risk, and to help make the maintenance of untidy sunken graves easier for grave owners by levelling and seeding graves, where it was practical to do so.
• Examples of what should and should not be allowed to be added to graves, including that, “No kerb sets, or kerb enhancements are allowed unless buried in a section where traditional graves are allowed”.
• Setting fees at an appropriate level. The annual cost of maintaining West Rainton cemetery substantially exceeds the income it generates. Pressure on budgets will increase further in years to come as the proportion of older graves will be become increasingly greater than the number of new graves that can be opened and the maintenance costs of older graves, and an established site environment, can be expected to be disproportionately higher. It was recommended that burial fees should be set at a minimum at the cost of annual maintenance divided by the number of new burials plus 50%: burial fees for traditional graves with kerb sets should be set at least two thirds more because of the additional maintenance costs associated with non-lawn areas where kerb sets have been permitted historically.
• Provision of an updated draft burial plan, incorporating all existing graves plots and making provision for over 470potential new plots in various parts of the cemetery.
• The need for a memorial safety policy to ensure that memorials are only installed by masons who are registered with either the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM)or the British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons (BRAMM) who should fit memorials to the standards set out by these professional bodies.

The review confirmed that the cemetery already has different types of burial areas in that:

• There are areas which are traditional in nature where properly constructed and maintained kerb sets have been installed.

• There are areas which are lawn in nature where only headstones have been installed but where some had inappropriate frontage added and were sunken which provided a poor visual appearance and were difficult to maintain.

• There are also areas which are a mixture of both – where some grave plots, in a more traditional type of area, had kerb surrounds or grave boundaries in situ that had not been installed by a memorial mason. These were constructed and /or filled with inappropriate materials and /or without proper appropriate foundations.  Such installations are a much more affordable option for families but are unlikely to stand the test of time, as can be evidenced from some of the older similar graves and will require future actions by grave owners to make good, repair or replace.

If grave owners cannot be contacted or they are unable or unwilling to make good, any inherit risk would need to be assessed and appropriate action taken by the Parish Council to reduce that risk for the safety of all cemetery visitors. Such intervention, although necessary, may cause distress to families.

A later survey was undertaken by the Parish Council of all graves to identify individual graves which were in need of attention by grave owners, to either tidy up or make good any repairs to improve the appearance of the cemetery and address any potential safety risks or any practical difficulties for grass cutting.

In all 139 graves were identified in need of attention. Many of which were older graves, with little evidence of them being tended where trees, shrubs and flowers planted were considerably overgrown. These were subsequently made good by the Parish Council’s grounds maintenance contractor.  Others related to broken of damaged or broken surrounds or edging, displaced, broken or damaged grass and ceramic tributes and other lighter weight tributes that had blown off detracting from the overall appearance of the cemetery and hindering grounds maintenance.

It was also noticed that some items placed on graves to commemorate the deceased in an individualistic way to give comfort to the family concerned, may cause offence or appear garish and out of place to others, detracting from the intended ambience of the cemetery.

This survey, together the advice given in the earlier independent CDS review, helped inform the development of a grave adornments policy. This policy was approved in December 2018 and came into effect with effect form 1/4/2019.This incorporated the earlier decision in September 2018 by Parish Council to designate all new burial areas as “Lawn”.

In summary, the reasons for the Parish Council’s decision to designate all new burial areas as lawn where only headstones are permitted are as follows:

1. To clarify that the only type of burial areas that would now be provided for new burials was in an area where kerb sets, and kerb extensions were not permitted.
2. A headstone only policy would help prevent creating circumstances experienced in other parts of the cemetery where the maintenance of graves in traditional areas, where kerb sets were permitted, had created difficulties for grave owners and grounds maintenance, or were likely to create similar difficulties in the future.
3. The purpose of designating all new burial areas as a lawn is to provide a more uniform appearance facilitating easier maintenance for both grave owners, and the parish council, not only in the short term but over the longer term.
4. This would help improve the overall visual appearance over time, as new burial spaces were identified in various areas around the cemetery, not just the current burial area at the rear of the cemetery.
5. The only maintenance of graves required by families would be to ensure the installation of any headstone remains safe. It is a legal requirement for the parish council to undertake periodic memorial safety testing so this work will alert families to any potential problem and what action they need to take.
6. Grave areas in front of headstones and around and in between headstones will be maintained by the parish council. If a grave sinks over time it will be topped up, levelled and reseeded at no cost to the grave owner.
7. It is not practical for the Parish Council to top up sunken graves where kerb sets or other types of graves surrounds or edging have been installed and /or where other additional tributes, which may be fixed, have been added or planted within the kerb set or boundary edging of a grave.
8. Any work needed to improve the appearance or make good any repair to a grave where a kerb surround is in place must addressed by grave owner at their own expense. Failure to do may put the safety of other cemetery visitors or any working in the cemetery at risk and the  Parish Council may have to intervene to address without the consent of grave owner. A headstone only policy removes the need for any such action and the distress that this may cause to families.
9. The lawn approach will help simplify grounds maintenance and helps reduce the cost of managing the cemetery, especially over the longer term as burial space is reduced and there are more grave plots to maintain.
10. It helps to reduce the inevitable increase in the imbalance between the amount the parish council spends on maintaining the cemetery and the amount of income it generates over the longer term.
11. It helps reduce the need for substantial increases in cemetery fees in the future, which are likely to be considered as unfair by those wanting to arrange a burial and those who already have loved ones buried in the cemetery who paid a much lower fee.
12. It helps reduce the need for further funds, generated through the precept collected from the whole of the community, being allocated to subsidise the management of the cemetery in the longer term.
13. A headstone only policy is a more affordable and equitable option for all families to remember and pay tribute to their loves by having a burial in the cemetery. 

2. The actions of the Council are unfair, thoughtless and very insensitive. Everyone has the right to pay their respects equally. The Parish Councils actions take away equality for everyone that are being forced to remove tributes and personal remembrances. The same rules should apply cross the whole cemetery and people should be able to personalise graves as they choose. There has been no consultation on these changes. 

It is acknowledged that different rules apply to the new burial area in the cemetery designated as, “lawn”, from other areas in cemetery which are more traditional in nature and that this may be considered as unfair. The reasons for designating new burial areas as lawn have been given in the response above.

The policy in relation the installation of memorials in lawn areas, of headstone only and no kerb sets, is the norm across all cemeteries as is the norm on areas designated as “traditional”, where kerb sets are permitted.

There is no requirement on burial authorities to manage a whole cemetery in the same way i.e., to make all burial areas traditional or lawn.

It is entirely at the Parish Council’s discretion as to why and when it decides to designate new burial areas as lawn, however unfair it may seem.  Just in the same way as it can make decisions on other polices relating to the management of the cemetery. For example, it is no longer council policy to allow grave plots to be reserved for future use, but it was at some stage in the past. It is not known when such a policy decision was made, nor when of why it ceased, but it is highly likely that when it did cease some residents aware of this may have thought this was unfair because they did not have the same right to reserve a plot as others had had in the past.

Everyone has the same right to purchase a grave plot. When “purchasing” a grave, what you are actually purchasing is a lease that gives the purchaser the exclusive right of burial (EROB) to allow someone to be buried in the plot; the ownership of the land remains with the Parish Council. Grave owners have no right to place anything on a grave, including the installation of a headstone, without the approval of the parish council.

Specific individual approval is needed for the installation of a headstones to ensure equality in size, inscriptions are appropriate so as not to cause offence to others and that they will be installed to the professional standards required to comply with HASA requirements..(This also applies to kerb –sets where they are allowed in the older areas of the cemetery).

Approval to place tributes is governed by rules set out in the Parish Councils’ grave adornment policy which all grave owners are required to adhere to.

As a burial authority, the Parish Council is under no obligation to carry out any kind of community consultation prior to making any decisions on the designation of new burial areas or on what or what not is allowed in the cemetery.

When the new burial area was opened in August 2018, the parish council did takes step to ensure that anyone arranging a funeral in the cemetery at that time, and any time since, was aware of this designation and the headstone only policy. In accordance with recommend good practice this was done at earliest opportunity via Funeral Directors – the first persons to be approached by families wishing to arrange a funeral with a burial in the cemetery.

The grave adornment policy approved in Dec 2018incorporatesall cemetery rules relating to the installation of memorials and the placing of other tributes. Its introduction was communicated via the cemetery notice board, village news and the parish council’s website. These rules were later incorporated into a cemetery guide leaflet covering a wide range of information about the cemetery which are sent to funeral directors to share with families. This is also published on the website.

No one has been forced to remove any tributes; advance notification was recently given to individual grave owners with graves in the lawn area that maintenance work was to be undertaken to top, level and seed to reinstate the lawn.

As work was also to be undertaken to top up and seed a number of sunken graves in older parts of the cemetery, where it was practical to do so because no kerb sets or other surrounds were in place, to help make it easier for grave owners to keep graves tidy, a notice was attached to the cemetery gates advising when this work was scheduled to commence.

These notifications asked grave owners for their co-operation in removing any tributes placed to allow this work to be undertaken effectively and their ongoing support in keeping graves clear of tributes to allow grass to be established and cut.

3. Why has it taken so long for the top up work on new graves to be undertaken and why was artificial grass removed from my relative’s grave without my agreement?

This grave was in the lawn area. It is acknowledged that it has taken much longer than expected to get to the position where some graves were fully settled and ready to grass. There was a period when the previous contractor engaged to do this work was unable to do so. Ground conditions and the weather also can affect the timing.  As the grave had sunk, artificial grass laid had to be removed before the grave could be topped up, levelled and seeded.

4. Is the grassing over graves the start of a long-term plan for the Parish Council to grass over the whole cemetery?

No. Grassing of graves will only be done as a matter of routine in the lawn areas after graves have fully settled to restore the lawn.  Sunken graves in older parts of cemetery will be topped up as part of a rolling programme, only where it is practical to do so where there are no kerb sets of boundary edges and infill.

Please note: 

The Parish Council takes all residents’ concerns about the management of the cemetery seriously.

Concerns raised about the unfairness of current policies will be considered as part of a comprehensive review of all cemetery policies and associated rules and regulations.

This work is in progress but will inevitably take some time to complete as there are a number of policies, rules and administrative procedures associated with the management of the cemetery which are all interconnected. If any amendments to council policy are approved as a result of this review, time will also be needed to effectively communicate these to all interested parties and amend any related procedures and guidance before they could be implemented.