Plan to turn popular woods into cemetery approved

The council says burial space was running out in the borough

Plans to turn a popular woods into a cemetery with thousands of burial plots have been approved despite "1500 objections", campaigners against the development have said.

Knowsley Council announced plans to buy part of Whiston Woods in Rainhill and turn it into a cemetery in 2023 as burial space at the nearby Knowsley cemetery on Fox Bank Lane was running out.

The authority submitted a planning application in February to neighbouring St Helens Council which has been approved at a planning committee meeting.

But campaign group Save Whiston Woods has complained the development would cause "irreversible harm" to an area of greenbelt land.

About 5,500 cemetery plots will be created under the plans, which will be carried out in phases over an estimated 100-year-period.

Knowsley Council will pay its neighbouring council almost £500,000 to mitigate the loss of open space.

St Helens Council said the first phase will provide approximately 1,300 burial plots and almost 1,000 cremation plots and would meet demand for the next 30 years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Knowsley councillor Caroline Holmes said: "We wish to create and deliver a special place, both for Knowsley and St Helens residents alike, to lay their loved ones to rest, but also to enhance the wider site for to enjoy.

"The design has been developed to allow those who wish to visit the site to visit the woodland, to do so without necessarily having to interact with the cemetery area, and to enable its current use."

'Never return'

Objections to the application were presented in a joint statement by Jackie Fox and Sue Parry from the campaign group Save Whiston Woods.

They said: "Over 1,500 individual objections have been submitted, and we're speaking for all of those voices, the families, the hospital staff, the walkers, the young people and older residents who love and depend on Whiston Woods.

"This is not just about emotion, it's about policy, law and the irreversible harm this development would cause to the protected greenbelt land."

The campaigner say the move contravened planning rules to do with the harm the development would cause on the openness of the woods.

They said: "Once the openness of Whiston Woods is lost, it will never return. That harm would last for generations."

Responding to the claims about the use of greenbelt land, a St Helens planning officer said: "Cemeteries can be appropriately developed on the greenbelt where openness is preserved and it doesn't conflict with the five purposes of the greenbelt.

"The officer's judgement is that the green belt openness is preserved."