MPs urge re-use of graves to save space in cemeteries

Re-using graves is the only way to allow people to bury the dead and preserve Britain's historic cemeteries from decline, a committee of MPs says in a report published today.

Re-using graves is the only way to allow people to bury the dead and preserve Britain's historic cemeteries from decline, a committee of MPs says in a report published today.

The report calls for a fundamental shift away from the idea of burials being undisturbed for all time, warning that Britain is running out of cemetery space and presiding over the slow decline of some of the nation's grandest monuments.

"Unsafe, littered, vandalised, unkempt, many cemeteries shame all society in their lack of respect of the dead and the bereaved," the Commons Environment Select Committee said.

MPs called on the Government to bring forward legislation to allow burial sites to be re-used to solve a problem that has been increasing since the 17th century.

"Many cemeteries are reaching or have already reached capacity," the report said. "The threat this poses to the freedom for individuals to choose burial is already very real. The scope for providing new land for cemeteries conveniently sited to the communities they would serve is very limited."

The report condemned the Government for "abdicating responsibility" for ensuring that cemeteries are maintained properly by local authorities. It said re-using graves would allow cemeteries to collect burial fees and pay for improvements. According to the report, the greatest cemeteries provided "some of the most intense poetic and melancholy experiences that visitors can undergo". But it warned that many monuments had been flattened for safety reasons, while some graveyards had become overgrown and untended.

"We did not come to the subject of cemeteries expecting to find that all was well," the MPs said in the report. "Even so, we were taken aback by the sheer magnitude of the problems facing our cemeteries.

"The almost complete failure on the part of public authorities to take the action necessary to address those problems ­ from the Home Office's decision not to issue the consultation paper on the re-use of graves to local authorities' refusal to treat this essential service with the seriousness which it deserves ­ is inexcusable."

Cemeteries in Europe had re-used graves for years, allowing the authorities to maintain sites, while English graveyards had become overcrowded and neglected.

MPs recommended that authorities exhume bodies that have lain in graveyards for 75 to 100 years, before reburying them in a deeper grave, freeing the ground for a second burial.

Andrew Bennett, chairman of the committee, said: "We were taken aback by the sheer magnitude of the problems facing our cemeteries. The problem of underfunding has been exacerbated by poorly trained staff, confused legislative responsibility and neglect by both central and local government."

The MPs insisted that "handled sensitively this was a subject which was quite ripe for public debate" and argued that most people were "quite amenable" to burial in a re-used grave. But they said that war graves should be exempt from any change, and insisted "that in no circumstances is it envisaged that graves be re-used without the consent of surviving and contactable members of the family of the present occupant of the grave".