PLANS for the construction of a new town cemetery on land near to the Bodmin Beacon nature reserve could be revived, just months after it seemed the project was dead.

Bodmin Town Council was offered the land on Crabtree Lane for £1 by Cornwall Council as part of a devolution offer on the condition that planning permission for the construction of a much-needed cemetery was approved by its planning department.

After spending a not insignificant amount of money on preparing the planning application, the entire project came to a halt when a main water trunk main operated by South West Water was revealed to go through part of the site, something Bodmin Town Council said it was previously unaware of.

In its response to the planning application, the water company had said that no construction could take place within 3.5 metres of that trunk water main, and if it required diverting it had to be done at the cost of Bodmin Town Council, which could cost around £600,000.

This led to Bodmin Town Council putting a halt on the progression of the proposals, and informing Cornwall Council that it wished to withdraw from providing further cemetery provision when capacity at its existing cemeteries were maximised in the next two years.

After this decision led to confusion from local funeral directors after it had not been communicated in the way councillors had instructed, Bodmin Town Council opted to look at reversing its withdrawal from cemetery provision and begun dialogue with Cornwall Council over resolving the impasse.

At a recent extraordinary meeting of Bodmin Town Council, the mayor, Cllr Liz Ahearn, who had raised the concerns from funeral directors after the decision was made prior to becoming mayor, confirmed that dialogue between the two councils had recommenced.

She told councillors: “I’ve spoken to them (Cornwall Council) and they’ve not shut the door on the project and are happy to go into discussions but we don’t want to go into ones that might be kicked down the road. The land is still available, but what we need as a council is the three plans for the cemetery with an assessment on the impact for the pipework.”

Cllr Ahearn also commented that she believed in the next few decades, provision for cemetery services in Cornwall would see the unitary authority operate fewer ‘super-cemeteries’ covering larger areas with town councils operating more localised provision. She reminded councillors that it was in their interests to ensure the long term provision in Bodmin.

After a discussion, where Cllr Phil Cooper, who said that in other areas of Cornwall, the unitary authority offered cemetery provision leading to Bodmin residents ‘paying twice’ for the same service, councillors agreed to continue discussions with Cornwall Council.