Rural Lancashire Cemetery Plans Special Muslim Burial Section Extension
Ribble Valley cemetery may expand to include a dedicated area for Muslim burials
Ribble Valley, Clitheroe, Lancashire, Muslim Burials, Cemetery Extension
Clitheroe: A cemetery in Ribble Valley is looking to expand. They’re considering adding a special section for Muslim burials, which is pretty cool.
The council is debating whether to keep the current cemetery non-denominational or allow for specific religious areas. The Waddington Road Cemetery has been around since 1861 and is the only council-owned burial site in the area.
They’ve already extended it once in the late ’90s, but now they’re running out of space. The report says there’s room for about 180 burial plots and 90 ashes plots left, but it’ll take several years to fill them up.
There’s a field next to the cemetery that the council bought back in 2011. It’s big enough for around 800 graves, but they’ll need to apply for planning permission to get things rolling.
Local Muslim representatives have reached out, asking for a dedicated area for about 60 plots. Right now, there’s no suitable place for Muslim burials in Ribble Valley, so folks have to go to nearby areas like Blackburn or Pendle.
There will be some extra costs for creating this Muslim section, like different spacing for the plots and hand-mowing the grass. But the fees from these plots would help cover those costs.
According to the 2021 Census, Ribble Valley has a population of about 61,907, with around 800 Muslims living there. The councillors are now considering how to move forward with these arrangements.
They’ll need to decide if they can reserve those 60 Muslim graves in the current area or if they should design a new section in the extension. Plus, they’re looking at whether the graves can be oriented to face Mecca, which is important for Muslim burials.
It’s an interesting development, and it’ll be great to see how this all unfolds!