Burial space will run out in 2036, council says

The Bishop's Stortford Cemetery Bill would apply to the town's New and Old cemeteries if enacted

A proposed law to allow a council running out of graves to reuse burial plots has been passed to MPs by the Lords.

The Bishop's Stortford Cemetery Bill would give the council the power to extinguish burial rights and disturb human remains.

The Hertfordshire authority has said it could have no more graves by 2036.

If Parliament agrees to the bill, it would apply to Bishop's Stortford's Old and New cemeteries.

An act would give the town council the power to disturb human remains after 75 years, but the remains must be reburied in the same plot or elsewhere in the cemetery.

The authority can only extinguish rights of burial if they have not been exercised for the 75-year period.

The council must give grave owners or a deceased person's close relative a six-month period to object, publishing its intentions online, in a newspaper and near the grave.

The Labour peer Viscount Stansgate said at the bill's third reading on 14 September that "more and more cemeteries" would run out of space in the future.

A Bishop’s Stortford Town Council spokesperson said: “Without enacting a private bill it is estimated that burial space will run out within the next 13 years.

“After this time, the council would not be able to offer burials within the town until at least the year 2080.”