Green burial site expansion given the go-ahead

Shropshire Council’s southern planning committee has approved the extension of South Shropshire Remembrance Park, against the advice of planning officers to refuse the scheme over concerns about the impact on the surrounding environment.

Members said they were satisfied with the assurance given by the site owner, David Riley, that no trees would be felled and no ecological damage caused by broadening the area permitted for burials into an adjacent clearing.

The remembrance park, at Upper Stanway Farm in Rushbury, has been operating since 2003 and sits in an area of woodland on slopes of Wenlock Edge, within both the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and The Yeld Local Wildlife Site.

Planning officer Andrew Sierakowski said that while the area was not on Natural England’s inventory of ancient woodlands, several ancient woodland indicator species had been identified by ecologists.

He said: “There has not been a coherent mitigation strategy to make up for the impact this is going to have.”

A letter from Corvedale councillor Cecilia Motley in support of the application was read to the committee, in which she said it was “discretely presented and sensitively cared for”.

Councillor Motley said: “It’s a greatly valued alternative to conventional churchyard burial grounds, which accounts for the need to extend the available space.

“The proposal is for a modest extension to the burial ground and directly adjacent to it, so there is no change in the existing topography and it forms a natural extension to the existing area.”

Mr Riley also addressed the committee, saying the current site was now at capacity with its 470 plots already used or booked ahead of need.

He said the site covered around four acres of the 34-acre woodland, and the new extension was less than one acre.

Addressing concerns about ecological damage raised by the council’s trees and ecology officers, who had objected to the application, Mr Riley said: “We haven’t destroyed anything yet.”

Councillor Richard Marshall proposed approval of the application. He said: “This has been running for 20 years, offering a service that’s becoming more required, with green burials in a very tranquil area.

“Looking at the photos and listening to what Councillor Motley had to say, it’s been running in a very sympathetic manner to the area.

“I would be swayed to support this development to go forward.”

Councillors unanimously voted to grant permission, subject to the preparation of an ecological management plan to be approved by planning officers.