Highgate cemetery has axed plans to build a controversial maintenance and toilet block as part of an \u00a318m revamp of the graveyard, after grave owners warned they would exhume the remains of their loved ones if the building went ahead.<\/p>\n
Grave owners at the north London cemetery cautiously welcomed the removal of what they called a \u201cbunker\u201d from a planning application that sparked dozens of objections, including from Jeremy Corbyn<\/a>, the actors Jonathan Pryce<\/a> and Bertie Carvel<\/a>, and the widows of<\/a> the actor Tim Pigott-Smith and the sociologist Stuart Hall.<\/p>\n But they remain suspicious of the management of the cemetery who had insisted during angry meetings<\/a> that there was no alternative to building the gardeners\u2019 block on a part of the graveyard known as the mound, where almost 200 people were recently buried.<\/p>\n Grave owners fear that dropping the building from the application is just a \u201cploy\u201d by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust (FHCT) to secure \u00a318m of lottery funding for a scheme to redevelop the 36-acre (15-hectare) site. They fear that once the cash is secured the trust will resubmit plans for the contentious building.<\/p>\n In a letter to grave owners sent on Monday, Ian Dungavell, the chief executive of FHCT, said the trust had \u201clistened carefully to the views of grave owners\u201d and \u201cdecided to remove the proposed gardeners\u2019 building from our current application\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWe hope the amended application will now move forward to determination, enabling the vital conservation work to begin. Importantly, consent for the amended application will also help us meet the timing requirements of the National Lottery Heritage<\/a> Fund, whose support is critical to safeguarding the site\u2019s nature and heritage for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n The planned gardeners\u2019 building was described by grave owners as a \u2018bunker\u2019. Illustration: Highgate Cemetery<\/p>\n In response, one of the grave owners, Amir Sanei, an architect, wrote to Dungavell and the cemetery\u2019s trustees asking them to rule out constructing the gardeners\u2019 building on the mound and propose a new site for the facility.<\/p>\n He wrote: \u201cThere is a valid concern among some mound grave owners that if you are not able to respond to these simple questions, that the omission of the gardeners\u2019 building from this planning application (at this juncture) is merely a ploy \u2026 to secure funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund without the most controversial element of the proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n Mound grave owners are also considering urging the National Heritage Lottery Fund to make the award of any grant conditional on siting the new gardeners\u2019 block on a different area of the site.<\/p>\n Anna Seifert-Speck, a film producer and script editor, whose husband, Simon Speck, a sociologist, is buried on the mound, said: \u201cThere is still a deep suspicion that they are mainly doing it to secure the Heritage Lottery funding.\u201d<\/p>\n