Residents of Harden and Boorowa will be no doubt paying for the expansion of the Young Lawn Cemetery after it was revealed that $1.7 million dollars has been proposed to expand the site which has just 2.5 years capacity.
Residents of Young and surrounds could be left with nowhere to be buried in their own lawn cemetery with the current facility set to reach full capacity according to Hilltops Council in the next 2.5 years. Last night’s recommendation was set down as follows.
That Council: (b) Endorse the draft Young Cemetery Plan of Management for public exhibition for 42 days; (c) If there are no submissions received adopt the Young Cemetery Plan of Management at the completion of the 28-day exhibition period.
According to Council, “The Current Status of Young Cemetery including the existing Young Lawn Cemetery is approaching capacity limit with an estimated 2.5 years of plots remaining.
The Young Lawn Cemetery was established in 1978.
The lawn cemetery is nondenominational. Plots in the Young Lawn Cemetery cannot be reserved, so new interments must take the next available plot in the sequence.
Also located at the Lawn Cemetery is the Columbarium and Rose Garden where ashes may be interred.
Most burials in Young are in the lawn cemetery, with approximately 70 coffin burials in the lawn and 10 ashes burials in the Columbarium and Rose Garden per year.
The monumental cemetery normally has up to 5 burials per year. Based on these utilisation rates, the Young Cemetery will reach its capacity within the next two and half years.”
Without a new lawn cemetery, the Council will not be able to continue to accept first interment applications for coffin burials in Young and would only be able to accommodate these burials in the Boorowa or Harden Lawn Cemeteries.
This may mean that both the Harden and Boorowa facilities also reach capacity faster although a report detailing the capacity of those facilities has not been produced.
According to Council, “What Has Taken Place So Far In 2013, the former Young Council identified a suitable Council-owned block of land on the corner of Thornhill and Purchas Streets for a new cemetery.
The proposed cemetery is a green field site and is located on the southern side of Purchas St.
The site is currently grazed and has a scattered tree cover. It slopes from the road in a southerly direction towards a non-perennial creek.
A 150-diameter sewer main traverses the property on the south side near the creek.
Utilities are located either on the property or in the road reserve and include electricity, water and sewer and communications In 2016 consultants prepared a Cemetery Masterplan for the new Young Lawn cemetery with the features including, A design based predominantly on lawn burials similar to the existing lawn cemetery, but also includes alternatives such as ashes placement, semi monumental and natural burials.
The size of the land will yield approximately 6,100 plots at approximately 50 burials/year, equates to a lifespan of 122 years, however last year Council accounted for 70 burials.
A five stage Implementation plan with stage 1 producing 10 years of burial capacity is proposed and the preliminary Master Plan was placed on public exhibition and attracted two submissions.
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