Plot thickens with new Whangarei burial options

Whole families can soon be laid to rest together in a new burial ground being developed at Maunu Cemetery.

The area currently being landscaped will provide 160 plots from which families can "bulk buy".

The layout will see a move away from the traditional straight lines of graves, allow for several interments in one space and for larger monuments to denote a family site.

However, there are unlikely to be crypts, mausoleums or other above-ground tombs allowed - and any mini-chapels or other structures will require building consents.

There will also be rules regarding the design and height of the memorials. Those criteria are not yet on the drawing board - but possibly no shipwreck replicas, Narnia wardrobes or Hundertwasser-esque follies.

Whangarei District Council parks and recreational manager Paul McDonald said the new family burial site is a response to requests from the public for more choice about where they can bury loved ones, and in what kind of landscape.

The area is not being developed because of a need to expand the size of the cemetery itself.

People often wanted to be buried near other family members, but when there were no neighbouring or even nearby plots available by the time they were needed such requests could not be accommodated, Mr McDonald said.

"It might be that you choose to buy eight plots in advance in the new family burial area," he said.

The prices are yet to be determined, but although they can be bulk purchased they will not come with a discount price.

Earthworks are under way and later work will involve making paved walkways and a driveway, stone walls, seating, garden beds, tree planting and building a pergola.

The nearly $200,000 tender for the job, minus the construction of the pergola and the planting, has gone to Broadspectrum, funded from the cemetery budget.

The new plots will be ready for use by the end of the year.

At the last assessment, Mr McDonald said, the council owned enough land at the Maunu Cemetery and around it to carry on under the current burial rates and trends for a further 40 years.

As for those trends, the council is investigating methods and technology for eco-burials.

"But the family burials area is the first cab off the rank," Mr McDonald said.