Plans for new city cemetery on ‘green wedge’ approved despite 1,000 objections

PLANS for a new cemetery for Cardiff north of the M4 have been approved – despite objections from more than 1,000 people.

Cardiff is running out of space to bury the dead as Thornhill Cemetery – the biggest in the city – is expected to be at full capacity after June 2020.

A new £3m cemetery – on a 12.5acre site north of the M4 on the A469 – was approved by the council’s planning committee yesterday.

Approval was given despite concerns over how the cemetery would affect traffic and the nearby Thornhill Farm Shop business.

The cemetery is also in the “green wedge land” around the city which is usually protected from development.

Andrew Phillips, who runs the farm shop, told the committee Thornhill Farm – which currently employs 15 people – has been in his family for generations.

Objecting to the plans, he said: “My father first took the tenancy on just after the Second World War. Ever since, Cardiff has been expanding.

“We always thought that the M4 would be the boundary and there would be no more pressure on farm land north of the city.”

But Martin Birch, from Cardiff council’s bereavement services, said the site would provide a long-term solution to the need for more burial space in the city.

He said: “Our city has a growing and diverse demographic and we have a duty and responsibility to meet their needs in life as well as death.

“This is a long-term solution, well over 25 years of burial space.”