Antrim and Newtownabbey Council working with three authorities for grave space

Councillors were told behind closed doors at a meeting of the council’s Operations Committee last month that officers remain in correspondence with colleagues in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, Belfast City Council and Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council as these authorities are also seeking potential sites for cemetery provision.

Antrim and Newtownabbey has no remaining burial plots at Carnmoney Cemetery. There is burial capacity in Ballyclare’s main cemetery at Doagh Road for 10 years where approximately 70 plots are sold annually and there are 698 remaining whereas there are nine plots sold annually at the town’s Rashee Cemetery with 394 remaining.

There is space for 2,203 plots at Sixmile Cemetery in Antrim where an average of 60 are sold each year. Ten plots are sold annually at Crumlin Cemetery where 442 plots remain.

Overall, the estimated burial capacity for the borough is currently just under 13 years.

There are 28 remaining plots in the Garden of Remembrance at Carnmoney Cemetery with just four months’ capacity.

As a result of the expected increase in cremations with the opening of the new £5m crematorium in Newtownabbey in June, the council is anticipating an increase in demand for the provision of interment of ashes.

The council currently provides a Garden of Remembrance in Carnmoney, Ballyclare and Mallusk cemeteries for interment of ashes.

Sixmile Cemetery in Antrim has been identified as a location to provide an additional 160 plots with potential for further expansion.

The council also intends to proceed with the establishment of a columbarium for the storage of ashes on the site of the old cemetery house at Carnmoney.

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter