It might seem a bit strange or rather grim to be buried in your own backyard, but it is perfectly legal to do if you want.
In fact, the star of Location, Location, Location Kirstie Allsopp buried her mum in her parents’ back garden in 2014.
Lady Fiona Hindlip was laid to rest in a wicker coffin in the garden of her Dorset home but Kirsty admitted it wasn’t easy following her mother’s last wishes.
The 49-year-old lost her mother to breast cancer when Landy Hindlip was just 66.
“I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone,” she previously told Times Radio. “I think there’s a reason that we hand over the bodies of people we love to people who are specialists in that field.”
However, it’s a fairly straightforward process to have a person buried on private land. It offers an opportunity to be laid to rest somewhere intimate and personal to the deceased.
Most people are hesitant to this route though, believing it to be a complicated process that requires planning permissions. In reality that is not the case. It’s easy to buried on private land in England and Wales, but not in Scotland.
(Image: Getty, Rex)
According to The Natural Death Centre, the single fact regarding private land burial which most surprises people at the outset is that for a limited number of interments, planning permission is not required adding:
“The reason is simple – the presence of a very small number of burials would not constitute a ‘material change of use’, hence no such consent would be required.”
The basic law is this: it IS possible – and not illegal – to bury a loved one in your backyard but you must get the consent of the owner of the freehold of the land.
The freeholder should check there are no restrictive covenants attached to the title deeds or registration of the property that prohibit burial and you must follow the minimum groundwater protection requirements.
There are only a few simple rules people need to follow, which Birmingham Live details below.
What are the rules?
The Environment Agency also points out that the site should:
– be 30m from any spring or any running or standing water.
– be more than 10m from any ‘dry’ ditch or field drain
– be at least 50m away from any well, borehole or spring that supplies water for any use.
– when preparing a grave, make sure there is no standing water when it is first dug and that it’s not dug in very sandy soil.
– there should also be at least 1m of soil above and below the body after burial.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Other things to consider
You must contact your local council and let them know what you are planning.
You may need to speak to the environmental health department, too, according to the government website.
The owner (or owner’s agent) of the land on which the burial has taken place must prepare and keep a burial register in a safe place, too.
That said, The Natural Death Centre points out that this doesn’t have to be a fancy book from legal stationers.
(Image: Getty Images)
A simple document will do it as long as it records the essential details of the deceased, and the date and place of interment with an accompanying plan showing the grave’s location.
The Natural Death Centre can provide a sample form. They add: “One final point with regard to people in authority. As private land burial is not a common event it is quite likely to attract attention and if you give your local police advance notice of the funeral they will not be wrong-footed into suspecting some improper act!”
For funeral notices in your area, visit funeral-notices.co.uk
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
