Ken call to re-use graves

Ken Livingstone has called for graves to be re-used to tackle a crisis in cemetery space in London.

The Mayor says radical solutions are needed "as a matter of urgency" to ease the shortage of burial land which will come under more pressure as the capital's population booms.

He wants the law banning graves from being disturbed to be reformed, allowing sites untouched for at least 75 years to be dug up. A "lift and deepen" system would mean remains already present would be reinterred at a deeper level - creating space for four coffins above.

Responding to a government consultation on charging burial laws, Mr Livingstone says many families are having to bury their dead miles from their home and at great expense.

Two London boroughs - Tower Hamlets and Hackney - no longer provide cemetery space. Another 10 will be full within the year. Reform would also assist Orthodox Greek and Russian Christians, Muslim and Jewish families, whose faiths prohibit cremation.

Recent figures from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy show 16 London boroughs have no land set aside for future use. Across the capital there are only 128 hectares of space in the 147 cemeteries, with 20,000 burials each year. Graveyards have had to allow burials between existing plots or even on footpaths. Open space, allotments and playing fields are now at risk.

Responding to the consultation on the Mayor's behalf, Greater London Authority planning officer Giles Dolphin said: "Changes in law to allow the re-use of old graves are required as a matter of urgency." He said this would help restore cemeteries now in disrepair because they were full and untended. The Mayor also floated the idea of bringing cemeteries under the responsibility of a London-wide organisation.

About 70 per cent of Londoners are cremated. But several faiths only allow burial, and with London's ethnic and religious diversity increasing, demand for land will continue to rise.

Councils can charge their own residents more than £1,000 for a burial - non-residents may pay up to four times more. Only Richmond, Hounslow and Merton boroughs have space for another 150 years. An area the size of Kensington and Chelsea is already set aside for graveyards in London.

Tim Morris, chief executive of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management, backed the re-use of graves. "It's a desperate situation. We need to think about the bereaved and those yet to be bereaved.

"Perhaps boroughs can't afford new burial space. Perhaps they're using their money to look after the living."

The "lift and deepen" system was common in England from Roman times until the mid-19th century, and is common across mainland Europe.

The Government is understood to be cautious, but Mr Livingstone believes the public will accept the idea. "It is the present deplorable condition of many cemeteries that most undermines respect for the dead," he said.

But at Tower Hamlets Cemetery - which is full - there was opposition. John Landridge, 54, said: "It's a disturbing idea. People are still putting flowers on graves, there must be relatives still alive."

Additional reporting by Ben White