Graveyards running out of space

Around 750 burials and cremations take place in Walsall each year and only North Walsall, Streetly and Willenhall have plots left. Bentley, Bloxwich, James Bridge, Ryecroft and Wood Street are all full.

The remaining spaces will see the borough through for around 90 years if the death rate stays steady.

In the meantime the search for a new cemetery to serve future generations in Walsall has started.

Councillor Rachel Walker, cabinet member for environment and Street Pride, said no site had yet been identified. "There is no crisis with the amount of burial plots in Walsall," she said.

"We are well ahead with planning for the future and we have enough to last us around 90 years.

"We are looking to add to this with a fourth cemetery site, which we are in the early days of exploring."

James Bridge Cemetery was closed to new full coffin burials in February 2003 but people who have space in existing plots can carry on with their burial plans.

North Walsall Cemetery, which opened in the mid-1990s, is a 40-acre site and around 38 acres are still to be used. It will take up to 90 years to fill.

Streetly has a seven-acre cemetery, dating from the 1930s, and a further nine acres to extend into, providing plot space for several decades.

Willenhall Lawn Cemetery, which dates from the 1960s, is a 13-acre site, with space for another seven or eight years.

Harry Arnold, aged 76, of Whateley Place, Coalpool, does not know where he or wife Margaret, 70, will be buried.

He wants a double plot and said nearby Ryecroft would be ideal but it is closed. "I didn't know you could buy a plot in advance and now I realise, it is too late and the cemetery over the road is full," he said.

By Lyndsey Hunt

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