Heathrow... slight tangent

[ecmgardner]

I know there's already a topic about the Heathrow expansion but I was really surprised to hear from an old school friend of mine that BAA are proposing to build an access road through a cemetery which from what I've read was still in use in 2003. (Her mother-in-law's buried there).

I thought that under the various Burial Acts there was a living memory clause of some kind and objections of any kind killed (um... pardon the pun) the prospect of planning straight away.... but I don't really know that much about how this particular legislation impacts planning.

Was wondering if one of the more knowledgeable BAJR-ites out there could clarify how it all works?

Here are the details she sent me:

http://www.hillingdontimes.co.uk/news/22..._cemetery/

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/CherryLane/#detail

[kevin wooldridge]

I imagine that BAA will get an enabling act for the whole project which may stipulate certain conditions relevant to the burial ground.

They may be required to cover the cost of relocating burials after advertising their intentions etc etc. But it is unlikely to stop the project...

[ecmgardner]

Ahh... I see - thanks!

[voice of reason]

Whiel dealing specically with CoE, this contains the relevant legal stuff - but basically you know that if they want to, they will find a way to.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/catha...idance.pdf

- see Annexe 1 from which this is extracted

Major projects – specific authorisation
91 Certain major projects may be authorised by Act of Parliament, a recent example being the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996. Procedures for dealing with human remains are contained in the relevant statute.
Compulsory purchase
17
92 Where a site is the subject of compulsory purchase, development involving human remains is covered by regulations under the planning acts, which provide that, where the land consists wholly or partly of a burial ground, the land cannot be used until remains have been removed and reinterred in accordance with the prescribed procedure.The Town and Country Planning (Churches, Places of Religious Worship and Burial Grounds) Regulations 1950 require the serving of notices to personal representatives of the deceased and the denominational authority, and for publication of notices in a local newspaper. Personal
representatives may then on giving notice remove the remains and monuments at the expense of the landowner; failing that, the landowner may carry out the removal and reinterment of the remains. The Regulations also contain detailed provisions as to the moving of memorials, the manner of removal, certification and record keeping.
Building work – disused burial grounds
93 Under the Disused Burial Grounds Act 1884, no building1 work may take place on a disused burial ground, except for the purpose of enlarging a church.This provision was relaxed subject to certain safeguards in relation to disused burial grounds (excepting consecrated land) in the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981. Disused in this context means a burial ground that has at any time been set apart for the purpose of interment and is no longer used for interments, whether or not the ground has been closed for burials. The 1981 Act provides that notices must be displayed on the land and in local newspapers giving notice of a proposal to erect a building.Where human remains have been buried within the previous fifty years, any objections from relatives or personal representatives of the deceased are fatal to the development and it may not lawfully proceed. For older burials, or where there are no objections, the prior removal and reinterment or cremation of burials must be undertaken where a building is to be erected on the burial ground, unless it appears to the Secretary of State2 that the erection of a building on such land will not involve the disturbance of any remains. In such instances, a dispensation order can be
issued by the Home Office in confirmation.The Act provides for relatives or personal representatives of the deceased (or in relevant cases the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) to themselves remove and reinter or cremate the remains.

[BAJR Host]

Lest we forget...

quote:Graves destroyed by Chunnel diggers By Evening Standard (2002)
More than 1,000 graves are being destroyed by contractors building the King's Cross Channel Tunnel terminal in what
government advisers have called "a desecration" and "an outrage against human dignity". Archaeologists excavating
human remains from up to 2,000 graves have been suddenly ordered off the site of the Camley Street Cemetery at St
Pancras as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link company (CTRL) prepares to start digging them out. They had completed
work on only about 100 graves. The experts wanted to identify the graves and then contact living relatives of the dead.
They also believed they could gather vital information which would help build up a picture of life in London during the
Industrial Revolution. "There will be many people alive who have relatives buried in this graveyard," said English
Heritage. "The archaeologists were excavating these remains with respect, as they are required to do. Normally that
is done using sheets to protect the remains from public view, and with meticulous care. "Now, instead, the company
will be sending bulldozers straight through the lot, loading the soil, bones, bits of coffin and name plates into what they
call a muck- away truck. Archaeologists will then pick over them for bones. "It is a total desecration of human remains.
If this were happening anywhere else - if it were an aboriginal cemetery somewhere, for example - there would be an
outcry. It is outrageous that they can just drive through a churchyard - people's grandparents and great-grandparents -
in this way." English Heritage is powerless to act, despite what it says is the invaluable record the graveyard contains of
life in London, with the most recent of the graves dating from 1854. CTRL - which operates under a special Act of
Parliament, giving it virtual carte blanche - has obtained a Home Office licence to remove the graves, although English
Heritage says it is missing the usual clause insisting on their "respectful and dignified removal". The row echoes that
surrounding the building of St Pancras Station in the mid-19th Century, when the Midland Railway company cut
through the same graveyard, disturbing 40,000 graves. The public outcry that resulted led to the appointment of the
novelist Thomas Hardy to ensure that the remains were correctly treated. "It seems today that little has been learned.
It is of great concern that this may set a precedent for the way early modern burial grounds are treated," said English
Heritage.

"Gie's a Job.."
Prof. 'Dolly' Parton

[Oxbeast]

This was covered the other week in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...ird-runway

basically, BAA have 'provided an undertaking in a letter to campaigners', which is a non-promise if ever I heard one, that they would not built a road through the cemetery, although the Dept of transport ar the Highways Authority could choose to do so. If they go around the cemetery it will mean turning it into a traffic island.