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  "path": "/news/hertfordshire-news-graves-cemetery-reused-future-burials",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-20T14:19:37.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Defiant Christian town avoids destruction by standing up to Islamist terrorists",
    "Reform-run council pledges to recite Lord's Prayer and sing national anthem before meetings",
    "Retired Christian pastor FINED by court after preaching biblical verses near a hospital",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nGraves in a British cemetery could be reused to make space for future burials.\n\nBishop's Stortford Town Council is preparing to repurpose historic burial plots in its Old Cemetery.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nOfficials warn that available space for new interments could be exhausted within the next 10 years.\n\nThe Hertfordshire authority has secured approval from the Diocese of St Albans to begin reusing graves dating back to before 1949.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nSeveral of the plots date back to the Victorian era.\n\nThe council is understood to be unique among local authorities beyond the capital in obtaining such powers through a diocesan faculty combined with the Bishop's Stortford Cemetery Act 2024.\n\nThis means they can bypass the need for central government authorisation.\n\nAny burial site with a recorded interment after December 31 1949, will remain untouched under the scheme.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe authority has released details of over one thousand burial records from approximately 900 graves that may be subject to the reuse programme.\n\nAmong those whose resting places could potentially be disturbed are infants and stillborn children who passed away during the mid-19th century.\n\nThe town council has published a notice on its website stating that the \"powers are subject to certain conditions and protections for relatives of the deceased\".\n\nOfficials have pledged that reopening graves in designated reuse areas will be conducted \"with the utmost dignity, due care, and diligence\" given the likelihood of encountering skeletal remains.\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS\n\n\n\n\n  * Defiant Christian town avoids destruction by standing up to Islamist terrorists\n  * Reform-run council pledges to recite Lord's Prayer and sing national anthem before meetings\n  * Retired Christian pastor FINED by court after preaching biblical verses near a hospital\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nWhere feasible, such work will take place before the cemetery opens to visitors each day.\n\nHowever, the council acknowledged some operations may need to continue during regular hours.\n\nGravediggers have been instructed to \"maintain dignity at all times\" and to remain mindful that visitors to nearby plots may find the work distressing.\n\nThe council has confirmed that any disturbed remains will be reinterred within the same grave where they were discovered.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAuthorities have committed to making every reasonable effort to trace and contact descendants before proceeding with any grave that has stood for more than 75 years.\n\nFamily members wishing to preserve a relative's burial site have until October to register their opposition with the council.\n\nThis would protect the plot from being repurposed for at least 25 years.\n\nThe scheme does not extend to any graves maintained under the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the council has confirmed.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Graves in a cemetery could be REUSED to make space for future burials"
}