The UK will run out of cemetery space soon unless we learn to have a new outlook on the sanctity of the grave

1. Limited space is slowly creating a crisis
A recent employment tribunal hit the news when two
gravediggers told of disinterring bodies to make room
for new ones, burying remains side by side, on top of
each other and below the water table. It is alleged that
when they raised concerns with management, they
were sacked. The company managing the cemetery
was struggling to provide enough space and, although
the correct procedures may not have been followed in
this instance, it is not the only cemetery in this
situation.
Around the world, space – especially in and around
cities – is at a premium for the use of the living, never
mind the dead. When land is worth thousands of
pounds/dollars per square metre for housing, business,
retail and even parking, it is difficult to persuade
anyone that a cemetery is a profitable option. In the
UK, there is very little recent experience of grave re-
use, so anyone buying a plot will expect to keep it
indefinitely, again reducing the ‘value’ of the land.
Although the UK parliament has been looking at the
issue for some time, as always in the context of death
and funerals, the emotive nature of the debate is
causing problems despite its growing urgency. Even the
high rate of cremations (over 70% in the UK) and the
increasing use of natural burial sites (over 270 in the
UK) is not easing the problem.
A combination of cultural and financial issues has
created a problem that simply won’t go away and
someone – commercially or legislatively – is going to
have to grasp the nettle before we really do hit crisis
point and the experience of those two gravediggers
becomes the norm.
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