Swift decision urged on village graveyard

A parish council chairman has called for an early decision on how to solve a burial space crisis in a Staffordshire village.

Cheslyn Hay Parish Council chairman Mac Harris said the council had a responsibility to provide burial space.

But he warned that time was running out for a decision to be made. A lack of parish council-owned plots in the village, which has two cemeteries serving Cheslyn Hay and Great Wyrley, means capacity could be reached in around five years. There are just 54 graves left in Cheslyn Hay Cemetery in Cemetery Street.

Meanwhile, at Great Wyrley Cemetery, in Station Street, Cheslyn Hay, 84 spaces remain.

Buying privately-owned land next to Cheslyn Hay Cemetery would prove too costly for the parish council as it has been earmarked for residential development.

Nearly all of the £500,000 previously set aside by South Staffordshire Council for cemeteries has been used to transform seven acres of land in Sytch Lane Wombourne into a new burial ground after 10 years of campaigning by residents.

Councillor Harris said: "It is a real problem and needs solving as soon as possible."

South Staffordshire District Council chief executive Steve Winterflood was confident the funding is in place and a solution will be found.

Mr Winterflood said: "There are a number of options.

"It is at an early stage and I cannot go into more detail because of the sensitive nature of negotiations but a report will be going before the council's executive and an an announcement will be made in due course."

Last year, South Staffordshire Council granted planning permission for Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay Cemetery Co Ltd to create a new private cemetery for up to 4,000 burials at the junction of Upper Landywood Lane and Strawberry Lane.