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Camden New Journal - EXCLUSIVE By CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 27 December 2007

CEMETERIES ‘FULL UP IN TEN YEARS’

Reburials a possible solution to shortage of grave space

TOWN hall bosses have warned there will no burial plots left within 10 years as Camden’s cemeteries run critically low on space.
Families face burying their relatives outside London or opting for them to be cremated instead.
Liberal Democrat councillor Flick Rea, whose cabinet post covers cemeteries, said there was “no easy answer” to the problem but added that she is anxious to avoid the growing prospect of reburial – the process where existing graves are opened up to make room for more bodies.
Officials have confirmed, however, that it is a strategy likely to be considered over the next decade as the shortage of space gets worse.
Highgate Cemetery – famously being the final resting place of philosopher Karl Marx – is the only graveyard within the borough boundaries that has room for further graves, although burials are arranged privately and cost more than £5,000.
Elsewhere, Hampstead Cemetery in Fortune Green, West Hampstead, has “no vacancies” with the untouched remaining space already privately reserved for future use.
Camden currently uses St Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley but council officials said this week that they don’t believe there will be any room left beyond an estimated 10 years.
Trent Park Cemetery in Cockfosters, Barnet, has been lined up as a contingency plan but it is predicted that space there will also have been used up within 40 years.
Furthermore, officials are sympathetic to concerns that the graveyard is a long way for relatives to travel to from Camden.
Cllr Rea said: “There’s no easy answer to the problem. However, we have some years and by then habits may have changed. I suspect burial will become an outmoded form of practice. What choice is there? We don’t have space. I don’t think people want us to dig up Hampstead Heath.”
She added: “The cremation garden in Hampstead Cemetery needs more marketing.
“It seems a far better way in the future. Reburial is not something we want to do.”
She ruled out a public debate on the issue on the grounds of sensitivity.
Bernard Heymann, chairman of the Friends of Hampstead Cemetery, said it was likely that Camden would at some stage have to consider reburial.
He said: “It’s a problem facing all London boroughs. Eventually there will be no grave plots left and you’ll have to use more cremation plots and reuse old graves. There’s nothing new about that – they’ve been doing that for centuries on the continent.
Mr Heymann added: “Of course, there are more pressing things for the council to spend their money on but cemeteries need to be maintained too.”
A council spokesman said: “Reburial is a possibility but a paper would have to go to the council and it would have to be approved.
“I realise 10 years isn’t very long in the context of cemeteries but it is long enough to have a full appraisal of the situation.”
A report published in November by Islington and Camden Cemetery Service revealed they had increased charges for a burial plot by 10 per cent.

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