If you are fussy about your remains, you should reserve a burial plot now. If your local council doesn't allow you to stake your claim on a grave, you'd better get used to the idea of cremation because the nation's cemeteries are running out of space.
In fact, the cemetery squeeze is so bad that some areas could have no room for the dead by 2020. In a survey of burial grounds conducted by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) published last year, London is predicted to run out of space for burials in 12 years.
The West Midlands and the North West are also crowded and could fill up in the next 20 years. It might happen even sooner. Redditch Borough Council recently announced that it would run out of burial space in five years' time.
No more room
Some cemeteries are already closed to new burials, often forcing relatives to travel miles to tend and visit graves. More than 10% of the 2,000 cemeteries owned by local authorities in England and Wales are closed to new burials. A further 12% are open only to burials in existing graves, according to the DCA research.
The pressure on space tends to be more acute in urban areas. In Birmingham, for example, six sites are closed to new burials. The capital is also under pressure. Just look at east London where the cemetery at Tower Hamlets is closed and Walthamstow cemetery is full. It's a similar story right across London.
The fatal flaw of cemeteries
So what's the problem? Many of our cemeteries date back to the 1820s and they started to fill up during the population explosion of the 19th century, when towns and cities grew by as much as 150% every 20 years. It was common to reuse graves at the time, but the rapid population growth caused a problem for gravediggers who would often uncover rotting flesh rather than old bones. So the Victorians banned the reuse of graves completely. Hence the cemetery squeeze today.
And things can only get worse because we all die eventually - and many of us still choose to be buried. There are about 150,000 burials a year, which is less than the typical annual total of 350,000 cremations, but it's still a lot of bodies. We also have to bear in mind that some religions, notably Judaism and Islam, don't favour cremation, so will always need burial space.
Where to do?
Local authorities are under no statutory obligation to provide a suitable burial ground, but you can't just dump the dead in the back garden. So where to put the bodies? One solution would be to buy more land. But the rising cost makes new purchases prohibitively expensive.
The answer is to cram in more graves. And last year, the government gave the go-ahead for body stacking, known in the trade as the "lift and deepen" method. Bodies are dug up and re-buried in deeper ground to allow another coffin to be interred above. The name of the new arrival can even be added to the headstone.
Councils will normally only select graves that are untended, suggesting they are not visited, and are 100 years old or more. But they might dig up 75-year-old graves if the pressure for space is intense. However, permission to dig up the remains is given only if there are no objections from descendants of the dead, if they can be tracked down. Families who object are allowed to defer the exhumation for "at least" a generation.
It's not going to solve the problem overnight. So in the meantime, councils use fees to manage demand.
Losing the plot
Yes, it can be costly to die, with fees of up to £4,000. You don't strictly buy a grave, but a burial right, which typically lasts 100 years, although some councils restrict the right to 50 years. If you want to extend your right, it costs extra.
The cheapest option is usually a public grave, which is owned by the local authority, so they decide who is buried in the plot. Or you can pay for a private grave, which gives you control over the coffins.
Some authorities offer different types of private grave at different prices, with perhaps a restriction on the type of headstone or number of people to be buried. You are also typically charged extra if you live outside the borough.
Demand fuels prices
The cemetery squeeze has certainly pushed up prices. In Bromley, for example, there are seven cemeteries but only three are available for new burials, so the prices are high. A private plot for one adult with burial rights for 60 years costs £2,999 - or a stonking £11,996 if you lived outside the borough.
Barking & Dagenham is cheaper, but you would still be looking at a bill for more than £2,300 for a single private grave with burial rights for 50 years. And that's before you've paid for the funeral. Pretty soon, only the wealthy will be able to afford the fees and burial plots could become the new status symbol.
Better off for the living
Could the land be put to better use? Local authority burial grounds cover more than 5,000 hectares in total. So shouldn't we be stacking up houses not bodies? Why use land to bury the dead when it could be used to house the living? You could probably build more than 300,000 homes on those 5,000 hectares of valuable land.
But think of the problems. First of all, how would you like some developer to come along and dig up your great aunt's body so he could build some flats? There would also be religious opposition to the use of any consecrated ground.
Even if you aren't squeamish or religious, it's worth noting that cemeteries can account for up to half of all green open space in some local authorities, according to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). In the borough of Newham, for example, 60% of public open space is made up of cemetery land.
"The great Victorian cemeteries were designed and maintained as beautiful public parks for the enjoyment of all. Every local authority should have them in their green space strategy and ensure that their full value is realised," said CABE.
It's hard to disagree. It might be nice if we preserved a little of our history - and our open space - and treated our cemeteries and their inhabitants with some respect.
http://money.uk.msn.com/consumer/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8145421
