Blackpool will have no room for the dead within two years unless Carleton Cemetery is expanded

What’s happening?

Carleton Cemetery will run out of space for full body burials within two years – or one for the interment of cremated remains – unless it is extended. The cemetery, in Stocks Road, is relied upon by Blackpool. The other cemetery in the resort, in Layton, is closed to new burials.

Why not just bury people elsewhere?

Wyre and Fylde may be able to accommodate burials for residents from outside their districts, documents filed with the council said, but apart from the trouble of some people getting there, non-residents also pay double the fees.

So what’s the plan?

The proposed extension site is on green belt land, and is also a site of ‘nature conservation value’ – with a pond there. No buildings are planned for the site, however, and the openness of the green belt will stay.

What will it look like, and where will it be?

The expansion site lies to the south of the current cemetery, and will be between Meadow Crescent in the east and Elmridge Crescent in the west, plans showed. An environmental buffer will protect the vegetation and wildlife around the pond, while a hedge will be planted around the site’s boundary so it is screened from the back backwards of homes in Meadow Crescent, which lie 175 metres away. The site is already screened by woodland from Elmridge Crescent and Greenbanks.

How many bodies will be buried?

There are 350 full-body burial plots left, plus 220 cremated remains plots – with the figures not including pre-bought plots.

The new 2.97 hectares – or 7.3 acres – extension would give the cemetery around 20 years of new full-body burials at an average of 110 a year, with around 5,000m2 available for cremated remains and scattering. If the plan is not approved, bodies would have to be buried elsewhere.