Long Sutton Cemetery to be expanded at Cinder Ash Park as Sport England objection is overturned

Plans to expand Long Sutton Cemetery have been backed, despite opposition from Sport England.

Committee members voted eight to five, with one abstention, to go against its own planning officer and vote for an application from Long Sutton Parish Council to turn part of Cinder Ash Park into extra burial spaces.

Parish councillors had argued that the land was originally intended as burial space in 1917, despite Long Sutton Athletic Football Club playing matches on a pitch nearby.

A majority of the committee was persuaded to back the plans after a speech by Long Sutton member Coun Andy Tennant who said: "This is quite a controversial application and quite an interesting application as well.

"This is all about who has the right to this piece of land and what uses it can be put to.

"A lot of the information contained in Sport England's objection refers to the impact on Long Sutton Athletic Football Club.

"But actually, it's parish council land which the football club only leases and the land was historically passed on to the parish council to be used for burial space.

"This piece of land has always been earmarked for a cemetery and if we can't approve extra burial space in a cemetery, what are we supposed to approve?

"A cemetery is not a building and the parish council wants to used this little strip of land that has no other use for it whatsoever.

"It will be in no way detrimental to the football club because the land concerned has never been a sports pitch."

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