Crematorium plans branded 'crazy' and 'ridiculous' by parish council

Cookham Parish Council members have branded plans to put a crematorium in the village’s greenbelt ‘crazy’ and ‘ridiculous’ – and plan to ‘strongly object’ to them.

At a CPC planning meeting on Tuesday evening (December 10), councillors immediately laid into the plans, which appeared in RBWM’s planning system last week.

Having been told of them in advance, CPC ‘made it very clear we didn’t like this idea,’ said Cllr Bill Perry.

In his view, the applicant – funeral services company Elegy – made some ‘very minor’ changes to the design in response to ‘what they chose to call their “consultation”.’

Changes included ‘adding a few more trees’ and ‘slightly’ lowering the chimney, said Cllr Perry.

None of which would stop the crematorium being an ‘enormous blot’ on the openness of the greenbelt, he said.

“If there’s an area of the greenbelt under pressure and in need of vigorous protection, it is that stretch,” he said.

There is ‘one field’ between Maidenhead and Cookham – and ‘that’s it’, he added.

Cllr Perry also raised concerns about the ‘enormous’ hardstanding proposed on site for 78 parking spaces.

He said this stood in contradiction to Elegy’s declared ambitions to offer the population a less hurried funeral service, holding fewer funerals per day.

“This [parking area] is a ridiculous thing to build if you expect only 20 journeys per funeral and you expect funerals to last an hour,” he said.

“This application demonstrates that the rationale for [the crematorium] is fake.”

He and other councillors reiterated concerns that the road it is proposed on – Long Lane – is ‘completely unsuitable’ for traffic, being a single-track road in part.

Moreover, a funeral cortège would ‘block the entire lane’ by travelling at ‘about walking pace’.

Councillors also questioned the ‘very special circumstances' (VSCs) Elegy and its representatives claim exist for this crematorium, which would justify building on the greenbelt.

The company has made several statements to the effect that local crematoriums are over-capacity – with that likely to increase in the future.

Dick Scarff of the Cookham Society said: “It’s funny there’s suddenly a need for a crematorium – there was nothing picked up in the BLP [Borough Local Plan] about a need for one.”

Had there been, a ‘more logical’ place would be Oakley Green, which has a cemetery already and is more accessible to people in Windsor, councillors agreed.

Cllr Richard Kellaway called this a ‘very cheeky’ proposal with some questionable statements within it.

“It’s a crazy application,” he said. “They wax lyrical about the Stanley Spencer view [landscapes associated with the artist’s work] there – which they’re completely ruining [if they put this in].”

Several councillors also raised public transport concerns; the ‘unreliable’ bus service and the ‘long walk’ from the train station and the lone bus stop – a walk they also branded ‘unsafe’.

As such, CPC’s chair of planning, Jacqui Edwards, proposed that the parish council ‘strongly object’ to the crematorium plans, a motion that passed unanimously.

Further, the parish council will ask a Borough councillor to call this application in to be discussed at an RBWM development panel, should officers be minded to approve the application.

Richard Evans, Elegy’s managing director, previously said the crematorium 'has been designed to match the local character' of Cookham and he is 'confident of persuading those living closest to the site that this will be good for the whole community.'