Green burial sites promoted

WOODLAND burial sites could be used to help fund the upkeep of the country’s forests, the Bishop of St Albans has said.

Bishop Alan Smith said it could also help to solve the “acute shortage of land for burial”.

During a House of Lords debate on forests, he said: “There are now around 40 woodland burial sites in the UK.

“In my own diocese of St Albans we have our own St Albans Woodland Burial Trust, which is in north Bedfordshire near the village of Keysoe. It is 12 acres of land surrounded by 60 acres of woodland.

“There is a very real and sensible concern about the economics of how all this will work - how we are to pay for the upkeep of our woodlands as the surpluses from the sale of timber are likely to decline because we have, of course, been harvesting it rather effectively.

“In some places there is the potential - admittedly very small potential - for a small section of woodland to be used for green burials.

“In our woodland burial site, a single grave space costs £700; to bury cremated remains cost £180. You have to be buried in a biodegradable coffin.

“You can have only a wooden memorial — you cannot have stone headstones — so eventually they will simply disintegrate and rot way and the woodland will be left as woodland.

“In addition, many people want to plant a tree in memory of their loved one, and for that privilege they are paying £100 a time. In other words, they are paying to plant the forest.

“Some of these sites are cared for by volunteers, so the cost is small - just a few hours’ administration, as in our own diocesan woodland burial site.

“Could this not be one small way in which we can pay for the planting of more trees and find a modest amount of further funding for our woodlands?”

In the same debate, the Bishop of Worcester John Inge highlighted the importance of trees in soaking up water and preventing flooding.

He was speaking as Worcester was suffering as the result of flooding which had caused the main bridge in the City to be closed.

“The river peaks in Worcester some four days after the rain stops because the water comes to us as a gift from the people of Wales—which generally is welcome, but they have been somewhat overgenerous in recent times.

“Attention to woodland far beyond Worcestershire will be needed if floods of the sort which we are experiencing at the moment are not to be repeated.”