Portsmouth cemeteries set for upgrades as council explores new faith burial sites

The council has approved improvements to Milton, Kingston and Highland Road cemeteries due to extra income generated by the council’s cemeteries team.

And a plan to create an Islamic burial site on Portsdown was in the pipeline, but this has been shelved due to concerns about groundwater. Other sites further afield in Hampshire are being looked at.

Milton Cemetery’s public toilets will be redecorated while installing new hand dryers and internal fixtures.

Other improvements across all cemeteries included safer and more accessible paths, new benches and replacement litter bins.

The city’s historic cemetery chapels will be protected, with works to make the Grade II listed West Chapel at Kingston Cemetery watertight.

Cllr Steve Pitt, Leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: “I’d like to thank the cemeteries team for their hard work, which has allowed this additional work to be carried out. These important green spaces offer the opportunity to reflect, to remember and provide habitats for the city’s wildlife.

“The city has a duty to its heritage, one that the council takes seriously. Our heritage strategy builds on recent projects including the redevelopment of the D‑Day Story, the arrival of LCT 7074, the renovation of Victoria Park and the Hotwalls Studios project.

“In addition, we have recently invested in renovation projects at the Kings Theatre and Hilsea Lido, along with repairs at Fort Widley.”

Capacity

Highland Road cemetery, which opened in 1854, is generally considered closed as the last plot has been used. The graves of decorated servicemen and women can be found there along with associates of Charles Dickens and the royal family.

Due to limited virgin land at Kingston and Milton cemeteries, the service uses a system known as ‘reclaim’ which utilises unpurchased grave sites that have no headstones.

“For example, this could be the case concerning an unpurchased grave of four spaces, where only two spaces have been used.”

The report shows over 13,000 grave spaces in Kingston, taking unusable spaces into account, which could provide another 72 years of use.

Milton Cemetery has over 3,000 spaces, providing another 34 years of use approximately.

Faith burials

There is one space remaining at the Jewish plot in Kingston cemetery after a section was allocated to the community in 1893. This led to the community purchasing land at Catherington Cemetery in Waterlooville, where most Jewish burial will take place.

There is limited space in the Catholic plots in Kingston and Milton Cemetery but the report notes that un-consecrated plots can be blessed by a priest at the time of burial.

As of December last year, there are nine burial spaces in the Muslim New Ground area of Kingston Cemetery, allowing for a further six months. At full capacity, an unused plot in Milton Cemetery will be used which roughly equates for five years of use.

The report notes that the Muslim community, which forbids cremation, has expressed a preference “for their own designated cemetery”.

The council’s planning team has undertaken feasibility studies for a number of sites on Portsdown Hill “albeit the local authority is not under a legal obligation to do so”.

However after the Environment Agency raised concerns over the risk to the groundwater, council staff are now looking at options in the East Hampshire District Council area.

It adds “going forward” the impact of local government reorganisation, which could see Portsmouth’s council merging with Havant, Fareham and Gosport, “will form part of future considerations and how this might impact cemetery provision across a larger area”.