Cemetery 'for villagers only'

The cemetery, in Station Street, is nearing the maximum about of burials it can take so the village's parish council has taken steps to ensure residents will still be given a space.

Clerk of Great Wyrley Parish Council, Mike Holder, said: "The council has reluctantly made the decision to not allow anyone from outside Great Wyrley or Cheslyn Hay to be buried in the cemetery.

"Each decision will be made on a case-by-case basis and if someone has lived in Great Wyrley for a long period of time and then only recently moved away or has some other connection with the village then they would be regarded sympathetically."

It comes into force on November 1 and funeral directors around the district have already been notified so they can share the information with the recently bereaved.

Mr Holder said if somebody had lived in the village all their life and then moved into a home outside Great Wyrley for the last years of their life, they would still be allowed to be buried there and said the council would strive to accommodate as many people as they could.

The measures are being taken because the cemetery is now nearing capacity and the council decided it was only fair that people who actually live in the village should be given priority.

Mr Holder could not say exactly how many spaces are left. "Some people have bought double plots so they can be buried next to their family so it is difficult to say how many are left," he said.

The council took advice from the National Association of Burials and Cremations Authority to check that the new policy would not conflict with anyone's human rights.

By Kate Hughes