Officials make 'lawfulness' check on 27-year-old Telford cemetery expansion plans

Officials have launched a check with their council planning colleagues to see if they are still OK to use land next to an Ironbridge cemetery for 'natural and environmentally sensitive green burials'.

In 1999 planners at Telford and Wrekin Council approved the change of use of a piece of open land at Castle Green Cemetery, off Beech Road.

The permission came with a set of three conditions which must have been implemented within five years to make the development lawful.

Officials at the council have used the services of a Bedfordshire based specialist bereavement consultant who has told planners at Telford & Wrekin that there is evidence that conditions have been met.

The first condition called for the change of use of the 0.4 hectares of land to be started by September 16, 2004..

Consultants have found "contemporaneous evidence of steps being taken to implement the permission shortly after it was granted."

They found similar evidence that the development was carried out in accordance with submitted plans which formed condition number 2.

A third, unspecified condition, proved more tricky to prove as "records confirming formal approval" had not been located.

However the consultants concluded that "the available evidence demonstrates that works authorised by planning permission had been undertaken by December 2000 and were consistent with the approved cemetery extension scheme.

"No evidence has been identified to suggest that the local planning authority regarded those works as unauthorised or took any enforcement action in respect of them."

The consultants conclude that the "development was lawfully commenced" and the land "continues to benefit from the extant planning permission."

Planners will decide whether to grant a certificate of lawfulness after a public consultation.

Details of the request can be seen on the council's planning portal with the reference TWC/2026/0814