COUNCILLORS will discuss a controversial plan to build a new cemetery in North Waltham at a meeting next week.

As previously reported by The Gazette, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has submitted an outline planning application for its controversial plans for a new cemetery in Stockbridge Road, North Waltham.

The borough council has been looking for a new site because the cemetery in Worting Road, Basingstoke, is expected to reach its capacity in 2020.

The local authority agreed to purchase the land at North Waltham in September 2012.

According to the application, the Worting Road cemetery had 432 grave spaces remaining in August 2014, and data collected by the borough council between 2008 and 2014 showed that 77 new burial spaces were allocated for full burial each year.

As a result, the borough council expects the cemetery to reach capacity during 2020 based on current burial rates.

The council expects the proposed cemetery to provide burial space for around 90 years and has proposed 30 new car parking spaces, traditional burial sites, space for infant and multi-faith burials, garden areas for reflection, and a chapel building which is expected to be built between five and 10 years after the site has opened.

When considering the North Waltham site last September, members of the community, environment and partnerships committee raised concerns that the site is too far from Basingstoke and that it is hard to reach by public transport.

To deal with this problem, the borough council said in the application that it will pay £15,000 a year for a public transport initiative to transport people to the site.

Three letters of objection – two from nearby residential properties and one from the operator of Basingstoke Crematorium – were received by the council on a number of issues including impact on the landscape, transport and the impact the new cemetery would have on the crematorium.

In addition, Dummer Parish Council and North Waltham Parish Council commented on the level of public transport currently around the site and called for a stretch of the A30 to be limited to 30mph.

The application says: “BDBC have resolved to continue to provide burial facilities for Borough residents and, following a thorough site search exercise, identified the site at North Waltham for this purpose.

“The design has been led by a team of chartered landscape architects with a specialism in cemetery and crematorium, design and delivery, together with input from BDBC’s own landscape consultant and other specialist consultants.

“The design approach at North Waltham responds to the setting of the site within its wider countryside context and makes the most of the positive elements of the existing landscape character.”

Councillors on the borough council’s development control committee will discuss the plan at a meeting at the council offices next Wednesday.