Parish council seeks to expand cemetery and improve chapel in Cookham

Cookham Parish Council is hoping to improve a chapel and enlarge the cemetery at Long Lane – and is looking for some residents’ views on the matter.

Among the parish council’s concerns are the condition of the chapel, the absence of a car park, and the decreasing capacity in the cemetery in tandem with expected population growth.

An Edwardian brick building, the chapel does not appear to have been significantly changed since its construction.

Its electricity supply does not provide heating to a reasonable standard, and it does not have a toilet. It requires ‘significant work’ to be brought up to modern standards, says Cookham Parish Council (CPC).

The chapel and cemetery do not have a car park and the entrance in Long Lane has a gravelled area not even large enough for a hearse to turn. This means hearses have to be reversed out – which is dangerous, CPC says.

Moreover, mourners have to park on Long Lane, causing further problems.

Many of the houses in that road already need to use it for visitor parking, so parking for mourners is ‘not easy [nor] neighbourly’.

This parking problem particularly affects busy events such as the Blessing of the War Graves on Remembrance Day.

As such, a car park ‘would be a valuable enhancement’, says CPC.

^{The chapel. Photo via Google.}

Cemeteries

Of the four main churches in the parish, only one of them still offers burials – St John’s – which has ‘very limited space left.’

Thus, the parish council cemetery is ‘soon to be the parish’s only burial place.’

Given expected population increases, it can ‘confidently’ be anticipated that demand for plots will increase, wrote CPC.

As such, the parish council has been seeking additional land for burials.

The parish council says using a separate site elsewhere would be costly and impractical. Moreover, it may create stress for families to have relatives buried in different places.

CPC therefore asked the Church Commissioners for England (CCE), which owns the adjoining Cemetery Field, to release some of that land for a further extension.

Conversations are ongoing.

Population growth

So far, RBWM has in principle approved 200 housing units in Cannondown Road.

They are ‘likely to have a slightly higher than average occupancy’ because they are intended for larger families who desire gardens, CPC wrote.

These and other developments nearby result in 648 new people in Cookham, the parish council says – an increase of 10 per cent of the current parish population.

“This… will obviously lead to a higher number of deaths in the parish than in the past,” CPC wrote, increasing demand on the cemeteries.

The parish council is ‘keen to enhance the chapel and expand the cemetery to ensure that they will be adequate to meet local needs’.

It is now consulting on this proposal from now until Monday, December 22 at 5pm.

Send comments by email to office@cookham-pc.gov.uk or by post to Cookham Parish Council at the Parish Council Offices, High Road, Cookham Rise, Cookham, SL6 9JF.

An open event will be held at the Community Room in High Road from 10am to 3pm, and a public meeting at 7pm on December 17 in the same place.