CASTEL constables hope to hear from the Environment Department within the next three months about possible sites for a new parish cemetery. They are currently looking at parcels of land either side of Rue du Presbytere, among others, but some areas in the parish have already been discounted.

‘We have not got a favoured option and there are so many things that could throw it off balance. We have to look at all the options and present the proposed scheme to the parishioners, because they own the land,’ said junior constable Dave Chester.

He estimated that a new cemetery could take nine months to a year to build with the formation of new roadways, pathways and memorial walls.

‘We estimate we will need a new cemetery in six, seven or eight years,’ he said.

The cemetery below the parish church has an average of about 25 burials each year – about 15 of these are in new plots and the rest in reopened family graves.

Cremations were increasing and burials decreasing, said Mr Chester.

‘We try to identify land within the vicinity of the Castel Church for the convenience of people going to the service and travelling to the burial site,’ he said.

There are several parcels of glebe land near the church. These are held in trust by the churchwardens and constables and the income from the land is due to the rector.

‘We are exploring the possibilities of utilising it because buying land would be a tremendous extra cost,’ said Mr Chester.

St Saviour’s new cemetery cost about £120,000 to set up on land that the parish owned.

Castel parish started off with a remede of £15,000 towards the cost of a new cemetery, which was repeated over two years, and it was raised to £20,000 this year because of inflation.

Before going ahead with any project, the parish will need planning approval and Royal Court permission and will be subject to water- catchment regulations.

An apparently suitable piece of land might have rock lurking close beneath the surface.