Burial ground plan for Perton to cater for 4,000 plots
A natural burial ground planned to transform acres of woodland in South Staffordshire will contain up to 4,000 plots, developers behind the scheme have said.
Plans have been submitted to South Staffordshire District Council for the burial ground in Perton in order to meet demand for plots. Unlike traditional cemeteries, natural burial grounds have no individual gravestones or stone memorials. Instead small plaques are hung from trees and posts which act as the only outward sign of burials there.
Andrew Russell-Wilks, from the agent's ANCER SPA, said today: "We estimate there will be between 3,700 and 4,000 plots.
“That will be over the space of 37 to 40 years so it won’t be all in one go. There will be around two burials per week.”
Around 8.6-acres of land at Corser's Rough in Perton will become burial space if the proposals are approved by council bosses.
A decision is due to be made by planning bosses at the end of February. No objections have been made so far.
The application has been submitted by the trustees of the Lord Wrottesley Voluntary Settlement and the site at Corser's Rough will be managed by the Natural Burial Company.
A planning application states: "Increasing numbers of people are seeking a less traditional, more secular funeral, in terms of service and final resting place."
Graves will not be visibly marked but records will be kept by placing a GPS transponder in each one.
The project would create one full-time and one part-time job.
The land was formerly a temporary Second World War military base. The plans were announced after a 30,000-plot cemetery on green belt land in Essington was given the go-ahead.
The scheme was approved last month as preparations get under way for the creation of a new cemetery in Cheslyn Hay and Great Wyrley, to further meet demand.
There are around 240 natural burial grounds across the UK. The first one opened in Carlisle in 1993.
