Burial Policy Consultation

The London Borough of Southwark is once again trying to wrestle with the issue of continued provision of burial space in the borough over the next few years with reduced financial resources. It is thus currently carrying out a public consultation exercise. To quote from Southwark's website:

"We have an urgent situation as our cemeteries are nearly full. We want to make the right decision for the future of the burial service in Southwark. There are several options that offer possible solutions to the challenge and this borough-wide public consultation is to gather views from residents about the future of the boroughs' cemetery service. These eight options are explained in full for your reference. The consultation will provide an opportunity to have a conversation with residents about the lack of burial space in the borough and consider the options for addressing it"."

The options are explained and can be found on the website here:

The options include the re-use of existing burial space, on which FONC has rather foresightedly expressed its views in respect of Nunhead in our 'Burial Policy' document endorsed by our AGM in 2009 and submitted to Southwark for consideration. Southwark have already said that the do not think that re-use of burial space at Nunhead is a viable option. An alternative is to bring open space purchased for burial use at Honor Oak, but temporarily set out as playing fields, back into use for burials. A very vociferous local group has been formed to oppose this option. There are other options such as giving up providing burial space altogether and purchasing new land, if it can be found, in conjunction with other boroughs.

You can consider these options and submit your views by going to the website here:

Consultation is open until the end of September with the last of three public consultation meetings being held on 10th September from 1:00 to 3:00pm in a marquee at Honor Oak Recreation Ground. The FONC Committee would urge you to take the opportunity to make your views known to Southwark and, of course, to oppose any suggestion that Nunhead should be used for further large scale burial.

The Friends of Nunhead Cemetery

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