Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Eighth Report

EIGHTH REPORT

The Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee has agreed to the following Report:—

CEMETERIES

Introduction

1. In April, the Home Office Minister addressed the House of Commons on the vexed subject of burial policy. It was, he said, a subject that "was only exceeded in its importance by its difficulty."[10] For this reason, no government action would be forthcoming.

2. The year was 1846, and just four years later, the same government was faced with a burial crisis of such proportions that it began to rush through an unthinking series of legislative enactments that ensured an effective short-term solution to the burial problems of the day, but left Britain with a disastrous long-term legacy. The combined Burial Acts established the principle that burial issues were a matter for local decision, leaving central Government with extremely limited responsibility and powers.[11] The legislation also introduced a new commitment for cemetery providers: that once buried, human remains could never again be disturbed without special licence from the Home Office.[12]

3. The cemetery as wasting asset had been born. This was in contrast to developments on the Continent, where regulated systems of reuse ensured that existing cemeteries could continue to serve communities for unlimited generations;[13] and was contrary to Britain's own tradition of churchyard reuse, which had been in place for centuries.[14] Increasing acceptance of cremation in the UK through the twentieth century provided a temporary solution, of a sort, to the problems caused by the prevention of the reuse of graves. The pressure on dwindling cemetery resources was alleviated by cremation rates that exceeded fifty per cent during the 1960s. But complacency about the ability of the cremation rate to 'take the strain',[15] combined with the lack of effective leadership at either central or local level,[16] has meant that an impending burial crisis has been neither averted nor even anticipated. As a result Britain is now faced with the rapid diminution of burial space,[17] in the context of an industry that faces a range of embedded management problems.[18]

4. Many cemeteries are reaching or have already reached capacity.[19] The threat this poses to the freedom for individuals to choose burial is already very real. The scope for providing new land for cemeteries conveniently sited to the communities they would serve are very limited.[20] As burials go down, so does revenue and the budget for maintenance and a spiral of decline can be seen in many places as a result.[21] The backlog of capital repairs is clearly enormous; thousands of memorials have been demolished and even now continue to be dismantled and laid down as unsafe.[22]


5. And yet cemeteries have a potential lifeline in that they are designed to generate income via fees and burial charges. The future for these places, which form a significant piece of our national heritage as well as providing an essential service to local communities, need not be as gloomy, or reliant on subsidies, as it is for services which have no inherent potential for generating income.

6. In January 2001, giving evidence to this Committee about cemetery policy, the Home Office Minister Paul Boateng admitted that the Government needed to be 'more proactive', and himself set an agenda:

    issues concerning cemeteries ... are beginning, now, I think, to come to central government attention, around the problem of old, private cemeteries, the limitation of Home Office powers, ... the training and qualification of cemetery staff; the need to address environmental and cultural policy issues and the inflexibility of existing legislation. I am increasingly of the view that we ought now to look at the sufficiency and adequacy of powers and policy in relation to all those issues.[23]

This report assesses the situation faced by cemeteries today, and defines those areas where action, by both central Government and others, is both imperative and expected.

OUR INQUIRY

7. It was against this background of increasingly run down and decrepit cemeteries that we decided to conduct our inquiry. Our terms of reference were as follows:

We received written evidence from over 120 organisations and individuals - testament in itself to the immense value set on cemeteries by our society. We followed this up with oral evidence over three sessions with witnesses representing a wide spread of those involved with cemeteries and the provision of burial services. We also visited three cemeteries and a 'closed' churchyard in Newham.[25] We are grateful to all those, both individuals and organisations, who contributed to our inquiry. We wish particularly to record our thanks to David Lambert, of the Garden History Society, and Julie Rugg, of the Cemetery Research Group at the University of York, who advised us on the subject. Their detailed knowledge of the subject was matched only by the enthusiasm with which they assisted us, and we are immensely grateful to them.

Cemetery Provision

8. The provision of cemetery services and their management on a day-to-day basis is chiefly a matter for local authorities, although there are still a small number in private ownership. Central government responsibility for cemeteries[26] (and crematoria) in England is shared. The Home Office is responsible for burial and cremation law, and related matters concerning the disturbance of buried human remains. The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) has responsibilities by virtue of the fact that most burial and cremation authorities are local authorities, and are organised and funded accordingly. The DETR also has an interest arising from land use and regeneration considerations and implications for environmental protection.[27]

9. The Government told us

    public policy in relation to cemeteries, and crematoria, is that their provision is a matter for local and commercial decisions in the light of demand. Regulation is light, and designed primarily to uphold the public interest in the decent disposal of the dead, to ensure that proper records are kept and preserved, to avoid public nuisance, and to protect buried remains from unnecessary disturbance. The regulation of municipal cemeteries also seeks to ensure uniform provision of the grant of burial rights and consistent arrangements for the maintenance of graves and memorials.[28]

10. We have more to say about this 'hands-off' approach to cemeteries later in this Report. Throughout our inquiry, however, it was apparent that a lack of information is presenting a substantial obstacle to the development of public policy on cemeteries. We do not even know how many burial authorities there are, still less how many cemeteries. The number of denominational burial grounds in operation is unknown. There are no statistics on the amount of burial space available across the country, or how long that space is likely to last. No information is available about how cemeteries are run, or how many are operational and how many are closed. Little is known about the role of the private sector in delivering burial services. We do not know what condition our cemeteries are in - although evidence submitted to our inquiry paints what we believe to be a fairly accurate picture. Nor do we know precisely how many cemeteries are of historical or architectural importance, or where those cemeteries are.[29]

11. We welcome the fact that, as a result of our inquiry, the dearth of information on the management and provision of cemetery services has been recognised by Government.[30] For this reason, we welcome the commitment given to us by the Home Office Minister to commission this year research which should help to overcome this fundamental problem.[31] This research programme should include the following:

  • locating all the operational burial authorities;

  • securing statistics on the amount of land currently in use, earmarked for future use, and disused;

  • collecting basic information on the management structures within which cemeteries are being run;

  • reviewing the condition of existing cemeteries.

Without all this information, policy formation cannot but be ineffective.

12. We believe that it is essential that Government address immediately the lack of basic information on the number, condition and operational viability of the country's cemeteries. We welcome the Minister's commitment to the collation of such information, and we recommend that the necessary research be set in train by the end of this year.

The Value of Cemeteries

13. So why are cemeteries important? Recent events at Bedford and Alder Hey hospitals and elsewhere have shown the store which our society still sets by the proper disposal of the dead. It is essential that this central purpose be borne in mind when discussing issues relating to cemeteries. However, the evidence we received for this inquiry shows clearly that the significance of cemeteries for local communities is far wider than this, embracing cultural, historical and environmental issues as well as educational and recreational uses.

The Needs of the Bereaved

14. The principal purpose of cemeteries is to serve the needs of the bereaved. Although the desire to bury the dead is now, and has been for some time, a minority choice,[32] we are firmly of the opinion that this preference should be respected.[33] However, we heard evidence that suggested that in a number of places at present, and in particular in London, the bereaved are effectively denied choice because of the pressure on burial space and the condition of cemeteries.[34]

15. The growth of cremation in the UK has meant that existing cemeteries have continued to be available to the diminishing number of people who wished to use them. It was suggested to us that further promotion of cremation as an option for the disposal of the dead would be the best means of avoiding the problem of the availability of space for burial.[35]

16. We do not agree, however, that further promotion of cremation is desirable. Indeed, it is doubtful whether it is even possible. Current trends indicate a levelling-out of cremation rates in recent years at around 72 per cent.[36] Witnesses argued that it was difficult to see what more could be done to promote cremation as an option. Dr Tony Walter, an author and Reader in Sociology at the University of Reading, told us

    Cremation has been actively promoted in Britain for over 100 years and that active promotion has been continuing throughout that 100 years. If you look at the graph it was going up throughout the middle of the century and then it has tapered off. I am not quite sure what extra propaganda in favour of cremation one could produce.[37]

It seems likely that there will always be a significant minority who will wish to be buried. To pressure the bereaved into considering cremation instead of burial would be to deny them the choice to which we believe they are entitled. Local authorities will, we suggest, wish to ensure the widest possible access to the option of burial.[38] This means that ways have to be found to ensure that local, accessible burial space is provided. Local authorities should address this need in their Development Plans.

17. Burial space should not only be local and accessible, however, but also appropriately maintained and managed. It is easy to underestimate the importance of this point. Dr Peter Jupp, representing the Churches Group on Funerals, told us that

    research by Doris Francis, Leonie Kellaher and Georgina Neophytou has shown the enormous and unexpected use of burial grounds by people visiting their dead. Ten or 15 years ago scholars ... might have said that in Britain there was no cult of the dead. The research by Doris Francis and her team has shown that those who visit graves are far more numerous than we had ever expected, and therefore the role of the burial ground in enabling people to come to terms with their loss, or of celebrating the identity of someone who is dead, is an extremely important one.[39]

18. The landscape and management of cemeteries should be appropriate to the purpose first and foremost of serving the bereaved. An environment which feels safe and well cared-for is essential. There exist many cemeteries where this is the case: West Ham Cemetery in Newham and the City of London Cemetery, which we visited during our inquiry, are good examples.[40] Many cemetery managers are also now providing for particular needs in their cemeteries, for example by creating areas for burial of children and babies or of those from particular religious groups. The concept of 'green' or woodland burial was pioneered, we heard, by Ken West, bereavement services manager for Carlisle City Council, and is now being taken up by increasing numbers of other burial authorities and private sector operators.[41] However, as we demonstrate below, the present condition of many cemeteries is far from appropriate to the purpose for which they are intended. Cemeteries which are run down, crammed, overgrown and unsafe do no service to the bereaved at a particularly vulnerable time in their lives.

19. We commend those cemetery managers who are looking to improve the service they offer to the bereaved and encourage all those with responsibility for cemeteries to consider further how they can follow their example. This should include ensuring that the public has access to good, impartial advice about the options available to them.

Cultural Value

20. In emphasising the importance of the needs of the bereaved when considering matters relating to cemeteries, it becomes clear that cemeteries are not just places for the dead, but also for the living. The Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management said

It was suggested to us that, for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cultural ambivalence regarding the status of the dead and their disposal led to the gradual devaluing of the place of burial.[43] Increasingly, however, it seems that people are setting more store by memorialisation. Ken Worpole, a writer and researcher on urban parks and cemeteries, noted the rising trend for people to leave wreaths and flowers at the site of a local accident, murder, or other untoward fatality.[44] We ourselves saw at the City of London cemetery how people are taking to decorating graves, even with Christmas decorations.[45] There is an increasing public desire for greater memorialisation of the dead which cemeteries, properly maintained and managed, can play an essential role in fulfilling. One interesting suggestion which was made to us was that one day a year - perhaps All Souls Day - be nominated as an occasion when people undertook to take care of their local burial grounds and cemeteries.[46]

21. Cemeteries also have a broader significance for local communities. Corfe Castle Parish Council wrote

    Whilst all cemeteries will clearly hold a special significance for those with loved ones buried in them, our cemetery also has a cultural significance for the local community as a whole. It records generations of local families and provides the direct link between those living in the village today and those of past times. Additionally, local people who have been forced to move away because of lack of affordable housing still have a tangible link, through past generations buried in the cemetery, with the local community.[47]

This goes as much for the city as it does for rural villages. The Garden History Society wrote:

    [cemeteries] are landmarks which contribute to local distinctiveness and cultural identity, and they are often an invaluable part of the local natural heritage, preserving as they do oasis-sites in generally highly developed areas of towns and cities... Above all, working cemeteries - and most Victorian cemeteries are still open - are a living heritage, embodying a continuum with the past, by virtue of still being used for burials... It is essential to recognise their local cultural importance, as physical components of the urban landscape, as repositories of collective memory and civic identity, and for the role that death rituals play in the spiritual quality of life of our towns and cities. [48]

Yet, as the Garden History Society go on to note, this significance is seldom recognised.[49] Local cultural strategies, we were told, rarely, if ever, take cemeteries into account.[50] We recommend that local authorities pay more attention to the cultural significance of their cemeteries.[51]

Historical, Environmental and Amenity Value

22. Calderdale MBC's memorandum sets cemeteries not only in their historical context, but outlines how cemeteries were viewed when they were first conceived:




Similarly, the Garden History Society, setting out in more detail the principles which lay behind 19th-century cemetery design, quote J. C. Loudon from his book On the laying out, planting and management of cemeteries:

    a general cemetery in the neighbourhood of a town, properly designed, laid out, ornamented with tombs, planted with trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, all named, and the whole properly kept, might become a school of instruction in architecture, sculpture, landscape-gardening, arboriculture, botany, and in those important parts of general gardening, neatness, order and high keeping.[53]

23. Whilst some of the more didactic elements of Victorian cemetery design might not be considered entirely appropriate to 21st-century Britain, nevertheless cemeteries retain many of the qualities which the Victorians considered important and which sit alongside and complement their primary purpose as places for the service of the bereaved. In some cases, this includes the original features of the cemetery, such as the 'tree trails' of the City of London Cemetery which guide visitors around the many varieties of tree species planted by the original designers; or the geological walk in Rochdale cemetery which follows a line of pillars made from different types of stone taken from across the British Isles.[54] In others, the original instructional purpose of cemeteries is being revived as schools use them as an educational resource.[55]

24. The Victorian concept of the cemetery as a place for retreat and contemplation is also just as valid today as it was when they were laid out. As our towns and cities have grown, and development has taken place around the out-of-town sites where cemeteries were originally situated, they have taken on an important role in terms of urban green space.[56] Hounslow council wrote:

    Environmentally, cemeteries are, or can be, places of great beauty and interest, an oasis, making them a welcome relief from the busy world outside ... These places of beauty are viewed as supplementary lungs of our towns and cities, particularly with the advance of the built environment.[57]

The historic importance of cemeteries

25. The historic interest of cemeteries is multi-faceted. They are important as historic landscapes, as collections of historic buildings and as documents rich in social and cultural history. As landscapes, they have been called, along with urban parks and hospital grounds, "one of the three great innovations in public landscape in the nineteenth century".[58] Faced with the critically unsanitary condition of urban burial grounds in the early-mid nineteenth century, the Victorians seized the opportunity not merely to establish the necessary spaces for burial but to create ornamental landscapes of the highest order. The Ancient Monuments Society states that "It is worth remembering too that cemeteries were set up not just to bury the dead but to stir the Muses among the living."[59] Fiona Green, a landscape historian, quotes John Strang's Necropolis Glasguensis (1831):

    A Garden Cemetery is the sworn foe to preternatural fear and superstition ¼ A Garden Cemetery and monumental decorations are not only beneficial to public morals, to the improvement of manners, but are likewise calculated to extend virtuous and generous feelings ¼ They afford the most convincing tokens of a nation's progress in civilization and in the arts ¼The tomb has, in fact, been the great chronicler of taste throughout the world.[60]

26. Apart from the landscapes, cemeteries contain one of the nation's most significant collections of memorial sculpture and funerary buildings.[61] Dr Chris Brooks of the Victorian Society wrote that "the cemetery buildings created during the great period British cemetery design - from the 1820s to the early decades of the twentieth century - make a richly varied, distinctive and often distinguished contribution to the country's historic architecture."[62] The Ancient Monuments Society said that together with churchyards, cemeteries "provide the country's single greatest legacy of vernacular art of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries."[63] The damage inflicted on cemeteries as revenues fell and maintenance problems grew is well documented by Dr Brooks, who summarises the post-war decades thus:

    between the 1950s and early 1980s, extensive damage was inflicted on historic cemeteries ¼numerous chapels, no longer used for burial services, have been destroyed; lodges have also gone, catacomb ranges have been sealed, and boundary walls have been dismantled.[64]

Although Dr Brooks identifies a reduction in wholesale destruction in the past fifteen years, the management problems of which we heard clearly remain enormous.[65]

27. The national historic importance of cemeteries is reflected to some extent in the listing of some 2286 buildings and monuments in cemeteries, and the presence of 26 cemetery landscapes in the English Heritage Register of parks and gardens.[66] But they are equally of irreplaceable importance to the local heritage and environment. As the Ancient Monuments Society said, "they are an invaluable source for local history and local identity."[67] Ms Sandra Hull wrote of her local cemetery in Boston, Lincolnshire, that the "fine collection of exotic trees" with which the cemetery was originally planted, remains "much treasured and admired."[68] The Heritage Lottery Fund wrote

    Cemeteries evoke a sense of history and a sense of place ¼Cemeteries are also important places within the collective identity of families or communities, as they are often social documents to the past life of a locality expressed in a telling and memorable fashion. Quite apart from the personal memories they evoke, they are also a document, through the remains of those buried within them, to the lives and work, the social and economic history of past ages.[69]

28. As a result, "cemeteries are vastly more interesting places than many urban parks."[70] They represent "a diverse historical resource with tremendous educational potential."[71] The mature Victorian landscapes with their buildings "add immeasurably to the urban landscape [and] still constitute designed landscapes of striking power and beauty."[72] The great cemeteries of the United Kingdom "provide some of the most intense poetic and melancholy experiences that visitors can undergo."[73]

Nature conservation

29. In many cases, cemeteries have also become an important focus for nature conservation, becoming wildlife havens and places where people can have safe and informative contact with nature.[74] Cemeteries support a wide range of habitats, including relict grasslands, heath, ancient and secondary woodland, scrub, hedges, ponds and flushes, as well as more artificial features such as high maintenance lawns, stands of trees, ornamental flower beds, and shrubberies. In addition, buildings, monuments, tombs and headstones, made from a variety of rocks, can provide support for lichens, mosses and ferns, as well as providing geological interest. A large number of rare species of trees, plants, fungi, invertebrates, reptiles, birds and mammals are found in cemeteries. Cemeteries are often designated as local Wildlife Sites, and sometimes as Nature Reserves.[75] Cemetery managers should evaluate the biodiversity potential of their cemeteries, and where appropriate, and in consultation with local Wildlife Trusts and other interested parties, manage the cemetery accordingly.[76]

30. However, it is important to note, with cemeteries as with parks,[77] that management of an area for nature conservation can be every bit as demanding as it would be were it managed in the same way as the rest of the cemetery. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was keen to stress that

    conservation must not be confused with neglect. A neglected cemetery does not become a haven for flora and fauna. A narrow range tends to dominate, eg self sown sycamores, brambles and even undesirable species such as knotweed, to the exclusion of much else of value. True conservation requires just as much if not more management as the traditional style of cemetery maintenance. If cemeteries are not adequately maintained, memorials quickly deteriorate and in due course are totally lost due to damage by trees, ivy etc. The value of a cemetery in terms of its history, heritage and environment is lost just as much as if its land had been used for commercial development.[78]

Management of a cemetery for nature conservation purposes must not become an excuse for neglect.

31. The role of cemeteries in nature conservation has been promoted by the "Living Churchyard and Cemetery Project", based at the Arthur Rank Centre.[79] The aims of the project are:

  • To enhance wildlife and its habitat in all kinds of burial grounds through conservation management;

  • To preserve burial grounds as essential elements of the historic landscape and to promote their recognition as such;

  • To create an atmosphere of benefit to grieving visitors and to promote community based action for the environment;

  • To encourage educational use of burial grounds;

  • To aid the understanding of our natural and cultural heritage and its importance in God's creation;

  • To enhance the amenity of burial grounds.[80]

The Living Churchyard and Cemetery Project was complimented by several of our witnesses, including English Nature, the Government's statutory adviser on nature conservation issues.[81] The project seems to have been very successful in regenerating rural churchyards and burial grounds, and in promoting churchyards and cemeteries as an educational resource. Sadly, however, it appears to have stalled because of lack of funding.[82] We recommend that the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions consider ways in which the Living Churchyard and Cemetery Project can be enabled to continue and extend its good work in regenerating cemeteries and other burial grounds.

10  Hansard, April 2nd 1846, col 467. Back

11  See QQ512, 580. Back

12  s25 Burial Act, 1857. More recent legislation has allowed the redevelopment of burial grounds for other purposes: see para 114 below, and ev p.79, for details. In addition, a body which has been buried in a consecrated churchyard in England may not be exhumed without a faculty from the Chancellor of the Diocese (Re Dixon [1892] p 386; for a recent example see Re Durrington Cemetery [2000] 3 WLR 1322). Back

13  Goody, J. & Poppi, C. (1994) 'Flowers and bones: approaches to the dead in Anglo-American and Italian cemeteries', Journal of Contemporary Studies of Society and History, 36, 1, 146-75; also ev p.21; p.68; p.136; Q3. Back

14  Cox, M. (1998) Grave Concerns: Death and Burial in England, 1700-1850, York: CBA; ev p.57; p.68; p.136. Back

15  Arber, N. (ed.) (1995) Directory of Crematoria, Maidstone: Cremation Society of Great Britain Back

16  See paras 46-49 below Back

17  See paras 50-55 below Back

18  See para 43 below Back

19  See paras 50-53 below Back

20  Ibid Back

21  See para 42 below Back

22  See para 106-112 below Back

23  Q512 Back

24  Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee press notice 63 (Session 1999-2000) Back

25  Annex Back

26  Cemeteries are different from churchyards. Churchyards are traditional places of burial that have been available often for centuries. These sites are usually no more than one acre or so in size, are generally located next to churches and are in the main owned by the Church of England. Cemeteries - large tracts of land originally located out of towns - came into common use from the 1820s, and are mostly owned by statutory authorities. Back

27  Ev p.78 Back

28  Ev p.79 Back

29  Ev p.174 Back

30  Q518, Q523. See also the Minister for Local Government, QQ515, 516. Back

31  Q558 Back

32  Arber, N. (ed.) (1995) Directory of Crematoria, Maidstone: Cremation Society of Great Britain Back

33  See ev p.183; Q208; Q211; Q268; Q578 Back

34  Ev p.184; Q3; Q211; Q330. See paras 50 to 55 below for further discussion and evidence of the lack of burial space. Back

35  Ev not printed (Jim Hindle) Back

36  Q65; Q263; Q268. Back

37  Q74. See also Q211. Back

38  See ev p.112. Back

39  Q279. See ev pp.153-154 Back

40  Annex Back

41  Ev p.38; p.85; Annex; 'Liverpool gives go-ahead to space-saving green burials', Local Government Chronicle, 26 January 2001, page 7/"Liverpool goes green as cemeteries fill up", Guardian, 22 January 2001. See para 57 below for concerns about regulation of woodland burial. Back

42  Ev p.162 Back

43  Ev p.173 Back

44  Ev p.17 Back

45  Annex Back

46  Ev p.18 Back

47  Ev p.121 Back

48  Ev p.135. See also ev pp.16-18. Back

49  Ev p.135. Back

50  Ev p.40; p.135. "Local authorities are strongly encouraged to develop and implement Local Cultural Strategies for their areas in order to promote the cultural well­being of the area. Such a strategy will integrate, implement and monitor the major cultural goals, policies and actions of the authority and its partner. Although the development of a Local Cultural Strategy is not a statutory duty, the Department expects that all local authorities in England, whether individually, or as part of joint or consortium arrangements, will prepare a Local Cultural Strategy for their area by the end of 2002." Creating Opportunities: Guidance for Local Authorities in England on Local Cultural Strategies, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, December 2000 Back

51  See Q452 Back

52  Ev p.52 Back

53  J. C. Loudon, On the laying out, planting and management of cemeteries (1843), p.13, quoted in ev p.134. Back

54  Ev not printed (City of London Cemetery; Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council) Back

55  Ev p.37; p.85; p.101; p.105; p.122; p.125; p.151; p.198; Q87; Q284 Back

56  Ev p.25; p.46; p.52; p.58; p.77; p.85; p.105; p.122; p.124; p.142; p.146; p.151 Back

57  Ev p.146 Back

58  Ev p.134 Back

59  Ev p.165 Back

60  Ev p.159 Back

61  Ev p.155 Back

62  Ev p.203 Back

63  Ev p.165 Back

64  Ev p.205 Back

65  See paras 43-49 below. Back

66  Ev pp. 213-214 Back

67  Ev p.165. See also ev p.159. Back

68  Ev p.202 Back

69  Ev p.124 Back

70  Ev p.37 Back

71  Ev p.155 Back

72  Ev p.134 Back

73  Ev p.165 Back

74  Ev p.1; p.19; p.25; p.37; p.46; p.52; p.56; p.65; p.77; p.101; pp. 105-106; p.113; p.124; p.138; p.142; p.151; p.162; p.198; Q359 Back

75  Ev p.138 Back

76  Ev p.139 Back

77  See Twentieth Report from the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee, Session 1998-99, Town & Country Parks (HC 477), para 67 Back

78  Ev p.26 Back

79  The Arthur Rank Centre is a collaborative unit supported by the national churches, the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Rank Foundation, serving the rural community and its churches. See http://www.ruralnet.org.uk/~arc/ for further details. Back

80  Ev p.105 Back

81  Ev p.37; p.101; p.122; pp. 137, 139 Back

82  Ev p.105 Back


 
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