Update: Sign the petition against closing the allotments here.
Richmond Council’s Planning Committee has approved its own application to remove the well-used and much-loved allotments on Shacklegate Lane – the last allotments in Teddington – in order to provide more burial space in Teddington Cemetery.
The reasons? The cemetery is running out of space …..allegedly. Council staff and Lib Dem councillors say it’s much easier to take back all the allotment land and have lots of space for digging new graves than the alternative courses of action. This is one of Richmond’s few open cemeteries: it provides burial space both for people who live locally and people living out-of-borough.
As for previous promises made to allotment holders in 2018 that only half the plots would be taken? Council is breaking those promises, saying that the cost of reclaiming half of the allotment space rather than all of it in one go is too high…..allegedly.
None of these reasons are satisfactory. All over the country (indeed, Europe) cemeteries are running out of space and their management are having to adopt new approaches. The previous Liberal Democrat administration in 2018 made a decision to initiate some of these new approaches for burials, such as re-use of older cemetery plots (successfully used in many London cemeteries in London including the famous Highgate). Disappointingly, progress appears not to have been made since 2018 in Teddington.
Local Green Party Councillor Caroline Wren has been supporting residents who are deeply upset about this whole affair and the poor way it has been handled. She says: “It seems as if this Council allowed itself to run out of burial space and then had to make a rushed decision. How can this have happened, when reports were produced in 2017-2018 that pointed to the ways we could avoid this? Residents feel completely let down and ignored.”
A pattern has emerged of this Liberal Democrat administration taking unpopular decisions hurriedly and without consideration for local people’s wishes. In this case, the decision to take away the entire allotment space was made back in the summer, and putting it through Planning Committee was merely a rubber stamp exercise.
Green Party Councillor Richard Bennett was the sole Opposition representative on the Planning Committee and argues strongly that the process was completely wrong: “This decision should have first gone to the Environment Committee, where the principle of whether the Cemetery should be taking away these allotments could have been properly discussed. The Planning Committee could only consider this case on its merits under planning law, not the arguments for or against this course of action. It’s largely irrelevant that the allotments land was originally designated as burial land – there are plenty of examples of Council choosing to make different use of burial land, so why wouldn’t we continue to use it for growing food?”
At the Planning Committee meeting, Cllr Wren argued that there are several viable alternatives to reclaiming the allotments that could provide burial capacity, if only the Council would adopt the practices used by many other London boroughs. “The Council is prioritising the dead over the living – this land should be growing food, not covered in cold headstones. If this decision has been motivated by making money, or through their own lack of action for 7 years as appears to be the case, then it’s an absolute disgrace” said Cllr Wren.
