Cemetery could expand onto Downshire Golf Complex

The borough will run out of burial spaces in coming years if nothing is done, a leading Bracknell Forest Councillor has warned.

Easthampstead Park Cemetery and Crematorium off Nine Mile Ride would expand onto ground currently used for a golf course to allow for 25 more years of burials.

Plans shows two hectares corner of the Downshire Golf Complex would be appropriated for use by the authority.

Under the proposal, more spaces for Muslim burials will also be created.

Where the new burial space would go (Image: Bracknell Forest Council) Councillor Iskandar Jefferies, executive member for leisure, culture, public protection and democracy spoke about the plans at a recent Bracknell Forest Council Overview and Scrutiny commission.

Councillor Jefferies said: “Our current cemetery is coming up to its lifespan. As you know when Bracknell was built, we are a new town, and the cemetery was built with a lifespan.

“We are coming up to capacity on that, so it’s really important to make the decision.”

Bracknell was first built as a ‘new town’ 75 years ago, before which it was a small village with a population of only 5,000 people.

The executive member warned that if the expansion does not happen, ‘in a few years from now, residents will not be able to bury their loved ones’, which would be ‘really sad to see’.

Councillor Jefferies added that the cemetery is a ‘very valuable resource to our community’, which the council earns around £2m per year.

The Downshire Golf Course, run by company Everyone Active, would lose it’s ‘pitch and put’ area aimed for children and more intermediate players.

The idea was first floated in 2020, when a Bracknell Forest Council report indicated using the land could incur legal fees.

The executive member said that Everyone Active had ‘pre-empted this decision’ and had already put in a new system at an alternative part of the grounds.

Plans remain in early stages, with a decision being made by council leaders in November whether an ‘appropriation of the land’ is considered viable.

Relevant parties, including the golf course owners, have been made aware.

If passed by the executive, Bracknell Forest Council’s planning committee will then decide whether to approve the plans, before a final decision will be made again by the executive.

This is expected to take place in January 2025.

Bracknell Forest Council’s executive will decide on the appropriation of land at their next meeting on November 12.