Llanddona's full cemeteries means no resting place

People in an Anglesey community are being denied burials in their own parish because cemeteries in the area are full, a councillor has said.

Llanddona church near Beaumaris was filled decades ago and a 30-year-old extension to the other church cemetery at Llaniestyn now has no capacity.

Llanddona community council said it had been warning Anglesey council about the situation for 10 years.

Anglesey council is seeking compulsory purchase orders to expand capacity.

Myrddin Roberts, who was born and raised in the area, has strong ties with both churches.

Generations of his family have been married and buried in the parish.

He said: "We had an incident a couple of months ago where a local man wanted to be buried in Llaniestyn church and he died and unfortunately there's no room in Llaniestyn Church even though we'd had an extension to the original cemetery about 30 years ago [which is] also full.

"We've been trying as a community council to get an extension to the cemetery for 10 years. We're in dire straits and I really feel for the people who live in the community of Llanddona. A lot of people in the village are extremely upset."

Churchyard audit

One of the newly elected county councillors for the area, Carwyn Jones, said he could not believe the situation had been allowed to develop.

He is now calling for an audit of all churchyards on the island in order to gauge the situation for the coming few years.

"I've got three generations of my family resting here and there's another generation that's very concerned as to their resting place now.

"We knew years and years ago that this was going to happen and we are still no further down the road.

"I think it's absolutely disgusting to be honest that the people of Llanddona have to face this situation.

"The council have now got to seriously take on this matter and put it as a top priority to help the people with this issue."

He added they needed to see which cemeteries were going to be filling up so "we don't arrive at this situation, where there's no resting place for the local people of Anglesey".

In a statement, Anglesey council said: "In September 2012 the Board of Commissioners gave approval for the council to seek a compulsory purchase order for land to extend the Llanddona cemetery.

"The associated legal process is now ongoing and the council must allow this process to run its course to enable a compulsory purchase to take place.

"The authority currently has a capital budget allocation for various cemetery works, including the proposed extension at Llanddona.

"This budget would be used initially to purchase the land if the compulsory purchase process reaches a successful conclusion."