A Greater London cemetery which was opened just three years ago to provide much needed burial space, is already preparing for phase II expansion with assistance from HBPW.
The 55-acre Kemnal Park Cemetery and Memorial Gardens in Sidcup By-Pass is a privately-owned facility, which was officially unveiled in October 2013 with the promise of 30,000 plots, accompanied by memorial gardens for cremated ashes.
And, whilst it was intended to provide much needed burial space for Bromley, Bexley and the surrounding boroughs, it is already clear that demand is rapidly outstripping supply.
HBPW Design Engineer Shaun Strugnell, said: “At the time it was said to be the capital’s biggest cemetery development in a century. Clearly it is a large site, however, London is an even larger city, which means that demand for burial and cremation space in this part of the world is exceedingly high.
Kemnal Park Cemetery’s non-denominational chapel
“We were invited to get involved with the project by contractor Faircloth and have worked with them to complete all the design engineering for Phase II drainage works, attenuation ponds and roadways that will create greater access to new plots of land.”
Although the site was privately acquired in 2009, extensive tests were made ahead of further investment. At the time of opening, the then Operations Director said: “When you acquire a site, drainage is the first thing. Working in conjunction with the Environment Agency, we went through a whole series of soil and ground tests looking for nitrogen and areas of landfill.”
Shaun added: “This latest phase of work will extend the life of the cemetery in the short-term, however, Kemnal will only have space for a few decades because of high demand in this area