Times and Star
CONTROVERSIAL plans for a green burial ground at Lorton are likely to be refused, more than two years after they were first submitted.
Plans for the site at Shatton Hall were submitted by Essex firm Green Woodland Burial Services Limited in 2004, but were deferred for further information, including the results of a ground condition analysis.
They will now go before the Lake District National Park Authority’s development control panel on Tuesday, when members will be recommended to turn them down.
In a detailed report, principal planning officer David Buylla says that the application is contrary to planning policy because it is would constitute major development in the open countryside of the national park.
It would be on a scale that would far exceed any local need for its facilities.
There has been substantial opposition to the plans, which include a car park and a turning circle for hearses.
Lorton and Embleton parish councils have both objected, as have 78 individuals. There was one letter in support.
Since the application was submitted, the boundary of the site has been reduced in scale, and the area in which burials would take place was reduced from 10 acres to eight.
Woodland Burial Services estimated that the site would eventually have 3,200 graves, and would take more than 30 years to be filled.
It would then become a woodland, a wildlife sanctuary and a nature reserve.
Allerdale council planners have also recommended refusal of the plans. The council’s bereavement services manager said any need for green burials was already met by facilities in Cockermouth cemetery.
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