Eco cemetery plan for grounds in Fife estate

St Monans based A. Stephen, Joiners and Funeral Undertakers, have lodged a planning application with Fife Council to change the use of agricultural land and a walled garden at Elie Estate.

A small area within the site has been used for burials, with the entire site having been consecrated during the time that Elie House served as the Convent of St Mary Reparatrice, from the 1950s to 1980s.

The eco cemetery would lie to the north-west of Elie House.

The concept of an eco-cemetery is to provide an alternative to a ‘conventional’ cemetery, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of burials and providing a peaceful, natural area for them to take place. The cemetery will provide for natural burials of coffins and ashes.

Mr Stephen’s proposal would lead to very limited change to the appearance of the site - it would continue as grazing land with some additional tree planting, where requested by families in remembrance.

In a planning statement, the applicant said there would be no formal design for the cemetery, with no paths created, headstones erected or formal planting, and no building associated with the proposal.

The cemetery would be used for burials in phases, the first over a considerable period of years, using the land closest to existing graves of four nuns who passed while living at the convent, at the west end of the site, and, in the much longer term, would use and to the east of the entrance gate and then to the north.

An area of the cemetery, adjacent to the gate, would be provided with seating benches and a memorial/information board for loved ones to be commemorated.

Mr Stephen expects that there will be, on average, no more than two burials each month and with only small groups of family/friends attending. Traditional funeral services will not take place at the cemetery and the number of mourners attending an eco cemetery considerably less than at a ’conventional’ cemetery service.

Councillors will consider the application in due course.