Sandbach Cemetery will be extended after Cheshire East admitted its 2018 review of provision across the borough was 'flawed'.

The council reviewed its strategy in 2018 and the long term proposal was that, as local cemeteries became full, families would be expected to bury their loved ones in Crewe or Macclesfield.

Following a long, hard-fought campaign by Sandbach residents, which included a petition signed by nearly 6,000 people, the council has now accepted that land currently being used as open space next to the cemetery had officially been designated as cemetery land.

A section of the land will be used in the future to extend the cemetery, although no date has yet been given.

Sandbach town councillor Ann Nevitt, who has spearheaded the campaign, told Cheshire East's environment and communities committee: "This [2018] document was deeply flawed and, either by error or design, it did not mention the fact that Sandbach Cemetery, the land of which had been purchased in 1932, still had a large adjacent field that had been designated as cemetery land."

Cllr Ann Nevitt (Photo: Sandbach Nub News)

She said despite representations regarding this from various people at the time, the 2018 cemeteries strategy was passed.

Cllr Joy Bratherton (Crewe, Lab), who chairs the members advisory panel which is now working on a review of the cemeteries strategy, told the committee: "We started this process back in 2021, revisiting the flawed review of 2018, the idea being that we use better public consultation, we find out what the people of the area are really feeling.

"And, of course, the most damning thing that we suggested [in 2018] was that the major burial centres would be Crewe and Macclesfield and… the last thing you want is a two hour bus journey and a 25 minute walk from the bus station at Macclesfield to visit a loved one…so I'm glad to say that that has been re-addressed so far by the working group."

She said 26 per cent of the 421 responses to the 2022 consultation had come from Sandbach residents.

"The feeling there in Sandbach, that obviously has been highlighted, was that this piece of land adjacent to the cemetery, has permission to be used as a cemetery," said Cllr Bratherton.

"We have accepted that and the officers have accepted that, and we have had site visits down at the cemetery to look at the best way of utilising that piece of land.

"The plan, as it stands at the moment, is not to use the whole piece of land, it's to use a section of it in the short term and begin to extend the cemetery into that part to begin with, and see how it goes."