Changes to burial policies and regulations on Executive agenda

07 November 2024

Next week’s meeting of North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive will receive two reports on proposed changes to cemeteries across the area.

Following on from a consultation earlier in 2024, Executive will be asked to approve plans to harmonise burial reservation policies into one unified policy across North Northamptonshire. If approved, the proposals would help to bring consistency to the reserving of graves across the area.

Under the new policy, North Northamptonshire residents would have the option to pay a fee and reserve one plot at a time, before burial. A grave could also be reserved at the time of burial for a partner or family member to be buried next to each other.

Executive will also be asked to approve a report on proposals to apply lawn cemetery regulations to the new extension at the council’s Shire Lodge Cemetery in Corby. In 2020, planning permission was obtained to extend the cemetery to create an additional 2978 graves.

A lawn cemetery is a cemetery where only headstone memorials are installed by families in a defined headstone border, with no additions outside the headstone border. This means the cemetery has a formal, orderly and peaceful appearance.

Currently a mix of memorial types are permitted across the existing cemetery and the proposals would also help the site be better managed in the future and help with ensuring the site is available for the longest possible time. The report also looks at other operational changes including simplifying the opening hours of the site to match the hours across other council owned cemeteries across North Northants.

With a growing population across North Northants and an increased demand for cemetery places it is important that we ensure that all cemeteries run by the council are as future proof as possible. This includes looking at our burial reservation policy and proposals to apply lawn cemetery regulations to the new extension at Shire Lodge.

We know this is an emotive topic and residents should be assured the Executive will consider both reports very carefully before making any final decisions.Cllr David Brackenbury, the council’s Executive Member for Growth and Regeneration

As an authority, we have a responsibility to make sure that services are fair and equal across the area and introducing a new area wide burial reservation policy would help us achieve this. But we also need to look locally and following the extension to Shire Lodge in Corby, it is important that we make sure this is available to use for many years to come, which the introduction of Lawn Cemetery Regulations would assist with.Jason Smithers, Leader of the Council

The Executive will meet on Thursday 14 November at 10am at the Corby Cube and the papers are now available online. The meeting will be livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel.