PLANS to build a crematorium, funeral chapel and car park on a Ribble Valley Remembrance Park have been met with concern.

A row has broken out over planned changes for a rural cemetery in the Whalley area, with nearby residents claiming it would be an “unwarranted disturbance of the last resting place of more than one thousand people.”

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Whalley Parish Council is strongly objecting the plans for Ribble Valley Remembrance Park in Mitton Road. The council says there are records showing it is the final resting place of 995 Calderstones Hospital patients who were buried there between the end of the First World War and the closure of the old hospital.

“This application shows no evidence of any attempt to ensure that the dead are treated with the respect demanded by law,” the parish council states.

The 3.7 acre site in Whalley, which went up for sale in 2012, has a driveway leading through mature woodland to the graveyard. The last interment was about 1970, although some scattering of ashes has taken place up to 2003. The site contains an archway between two small chapels and much of the burial area is overgrown.

Beyond the site is a war grave memorial for 33 First World War dead and Second World War soldiers who stayed at the hospital. This memorial area is not subject to the new plans.

“Given the known presence of such a number of human remains and in the absolute absence of any evidence of knowledge by the proposers of the location of such remains, it must be made a requirement that the proposers conduct a detailed survey in order to accurately locate and identify all the burials before any permission to proceed with construction can be considered,” states a letter by Whalley Parish Council.

Ribble Valley Council’s planning department is deciding whether the matter should be decided by an officer under delegated powers or discussed by the planning committee.