Work progressing on £1.4 million Cannock cemetery
This aerial photograph shows work progressing on a huge new cemetery in Staffordshire.
The £1.4 million facility is being built from scratch amid a shortage of burial space in and around the Cannock Chase district.
Eventually, when the site opens, it will house more than 1,000 plots for people to bury their loved ones.
The site, just off Hednesford Road, in the Heath Hayes area of the district, will provide burial space for the next 25 years.
It is being built within a green environment, surrounded by thickets of trees and fields, and will stand at 185,000 sq m wide.
Since work began earlier this year, construction crews have continued laying the foundations, in particular to the western side of the development.
In September, the upcoming cemetery was welcomed by Norton Canes councillor Zaphne Stretton MBE.
She said: "It is a nice area that Cannock Chase District Council have chosen.
"That area is easily accessible and it will look nice.
Needed
"The fact that we were very quickly running out of burial space in the whole of Cannock, we desperately needed a new cemetery."
The cemetery is set to open early in 2021, between the months of January and March.
Construction work is taking place in several phases.
Phase one is seeing the construction of a reception building, an access road, landscaping and burial plots. This is set to be completed by December.
Later phases will include the introduction of more burial plots.
The cemetery will be built near to a new crematorium which will be a separately run facility, by private company Horizon Cremation. The crematorium is set to open in March.
Once both facilities open, residents living in and around the Cannock Chase district will have new burial facilities to lay to rest their loved ones.
