The town cemetery on Monmouth's Osbaston Road, which closed in 2010, may be reopened for new burials following a town council decision to support the move.

At present, there is only the provision for internment of ashes. For over 10 years there has been no county council provision for burials in Central Monmouthshire; a 2013 council report said that: “Due to the nature of the land and its previous use, the consultants employed by the county council recommended that it is not viable to carry out the necessary works to recommence burials.”

In a move to provide another facility, an £80,000 feasibility study on council-owned ground at Meend Farm, Penallt in 2014 also failed its bore holes inspections. It is thought that rules and regulations being very strict in opening new cemetery sites also contributed towards the defeat.

A number of proposals to re-open the cemetery has been made over the years and a Friends of the Cemetery group helped to maintain the ground. The group has now dissolved.

In 2015, town mayor Councillor Terry Christopher said there was a “very positive meeting” between town and county council officers to fund excavation of trial holes within the grounds at Monmouth so that burials could restart, but this failed too.

The cemetery, which has a grave from a soldier who served at Rorke’s Drift as well as headstones of soldiers of the RMRE (M) who died during WW1, has now been scrutinised by a working party of town councillors and MCC officers, who have identified a number of areas that need investigating.

Rhian Jackson, Cemeteries Officer at Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) confirmed that the wooded area, to the left of the bank and at the end of the footpath, cannot be cleared to make room for graves as the tree stumps cannot be removed entirely.

The lower area, near the footbridge, has been cleared and it is anticipated that this area could give space for about 45 graves with the potential that these could be double depth graves. This could allow for burials for two and a half years.

She confirmed that there is space on the lower flatter area that already has existing graves - around 20 spaces but single depth - but there are concerns that the water table is too high in this area which would mean either it is not usable or it can only be offered at certain times of the year. If it is possible to offer this area, this could allow for an additional 18 months of burials.

She said that if the cemetery is reopened, the footpath and entrance onto the footpath will need to be widened to allow for machinery and potentially the hearse to bring the coffin to the grave side although the funeral directors can currently use a trolley for this.

David Cox, part of the Grounds and Estates team for MCC, advised that the biodiversity officer had provided a report for the area and had stated that whatever works are carried out for the footpath, and other parts of the cemetery, cannot impact biodiversity, instead it must increase it.

There are records of glow worms and glow flies at the cemetery which must be preserved. It was suggested that any digging would be replaced with plug plants and wild flowers to support the biodiversity of the area.

Former town councillor Anthea Dewhurst explained that the local community already supports the biodiversity of the cemetery by carrying out annual haymaking to ensure that the wildflowers are preserved.

It was agreed by the cemetery working party that the project needs to be considered as two sub-projects; the first being the lower part of the cemetery for traditional burials and the second being the bank - the initial plan - which could potentially be offered for up to 500 green burial spaces.

However, the MCC Grounds team explained that the current machinery they use cannot legally be used on the bank due to health and safety.

It was also noted that MCC prefers not to use a contractor or to hire machinery due to possible reliability issues of machinery being available or people turning up as and when they are needed.

This means that consideration needs to be given to how the green spaces can be offered. Another former councillor, Chris Munslow, said that the cemetery in Kington is steeper than Monmouth and they are able to offer green burials.

It was agreed that David Cox would investigate the machinery used in Kington to ascertain whether it was something that MCC can offer. Rhian Jackson advised that consideration would need to be given to whether it is worth opening the cemetery for 4-5 years of burials if the bank cannot be offered as a green burial site.

The working party agreed on a number of actions to be undertaken by MCC if the plan goes ahead. The stream at the bottom of the cemetery would be dredged to see if that improves the water table of the land proposed for burials.

Test pits to be dug on the lower area to check the water table levels.

Investigate what machinery can legally be used on the bank and any other alternatives that may allow the bank being opened for green burials.

At a town council sub-committee meeting on Monday Feb 13, it was agreed to make the recommendation to Full Cabinet to reopen the cemetery for burials and that the town council would fund the widening of the footpath to allow hearse access to the new sites at a cost of under £6,000. The town clerk has asked Rhian Jackson to arrange an agenda item for cabinet (potentially the March 1 meeting) in the hope that they agree the reopening of it.

In terms of numbers, the newly cleared area will allow 45 double depth graves and the potential for 16 single depth graves but use of these will be dependent on the water table. Further test digs need to happen on the bank before confirming the numbers, but it is anticipated that there will be a potential 50 double depth graves on the lower part of the bank.

Joint actions with MCC and the town council would consider whether it is viable to open the lower part of the cemetery for traditional burials if the water table levels are suitable for opening, if the bank cannot be opened at a later date.

The action to recommend to MCC’s Cabinet was unanimously agreed at a meeting last Monday (February 13).