Our administration cares deeply about Bristol’s parks and green spaces. Over eight years, we have worked hard to protect and invest in them, despite national austerity, and just last week we launched our strategy to improve their accessibility for all residents. 

We also care about Bristolians’ right to bury and subsequently visit their loved ones, in the city they lived, close to the people they cared about.  

Making tough decisions is part of leading a complicated and diverse city like Bristol. Working with the cards you are dealt, finite land and resources, and then choosing what is best for the city and its population.  

The decision to expand South Bristol Cemetery was the correct one. Simply put, Bristol is running out of burial space – the eight council-owned cemeteries cannot manage the pressure building from one of our country’s fastest growing cities. 

It is the only appropriate option that has the necessary existing infrastructure and transport links, has the right topography and wouldn’t put additional pressure on green space in the city. A completely new development would result in larger carbon emissions and involve a larger area of green space.

It’s easy to make sensationalist statements about our intentions, trying to raise fear and headlines through a fictionalised conflict between burial space and nature. But nobody has the right to fail Bristolians in such a fundamental way by doing nothing. 

Protecting the SNCI 

It remains an absolute priority for us that we complete this work correctly. Protecting this area, as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), has been at the forefront of our plans from the beginning.  

The council has worked to establish a close relationship with the current licensed grazier, sharing information about best practice to ensure the protection of wildlife and biodiversity. Our precaution includes developing detailed clauses within the lease, which will allow us to take enforcement action if there is mismanagement in the future.

Enabling grazing with the right cattle will ensure the SNCI is managed effectively to maintain and restore the valuable species-rich grassland which characterises this part of the SNCI: something that has become sub-optimal under the current management regime. This means we can protect the site without needing to cut for hay every year.

A Landscape and Ecological Management Plan (LEMP) is also being prepared in consultation with the grazier and other relevant partners. The LEMP sets out the council’s practical measures to ensure the ecological mitigation commitments made as part of the planning application will be delivered.  

What work is happening? 

It is easy to exaggerate any work that has taken place, when publicising pictures of tyre tracks in a muddy field during a wet February, or contrasting pictures of shrubbery in summer with those taken in winter. 

In reality, the only work undertaken by Bristol City Council at Yew Tree Farm this year has been soil information sampling to enable design of a drainage attenuation basin. This is a pond which stores excess rainwater during storms, releasing it more slowly to reduce downstream flood risk. The soil sampling involved digging six small trial holes in the area designated for this pond. 

The main scrub encroachment clearance work is yet to happen. This includes cutting back isolated, overgrown patches of bramble in the centre and edge of the field, with no hedgerows or other established vegetation clearance included. 

Bramble scrub encroachment clearance is an essential part of maintaining and restoring the species rich grassland of the SNCI. The cemetery expansion is enabling a significant investment in preserving and restoring the natural biodiversity of the SNCI. To leave the bramble scrub encroachment untouched would lead to the loss of this grassland. The Ecological Management Plans leave ample valuable shelter for birds, small mammals and insects, while ensuing grazing will maintain the future balance of scrub and grassland.

When the council was given latest information about dormice potentially being in the southern part of Yew Tree Farm, we immediately started work to undertake a dormouse survey, using suitably qualified and licensed ecologists.  

The council will only commence scrub encroachment clearance here, once it has been confirmed that the risk of harm to protected species in the area being cleared is acceptably low and when weather conditions permit works to take place in a considerate manner. 

Last month the council’s ecologist, tree and enforcement officers visited a separate part of the site, not connected to the cemetery expansion, and observed hedgerow damage in adjacent, non-council land. They immediately passed their findings to the police to investigate. 

We raised the case with the land’s grazier, enforcing that any future works undertaken on this site should be informed by ecological surveys where required. Council officers have also shared best practice to prevent this happening again.  

South Bristol Cemetery  

The land leased by Bristol City Council to the farmer at Yew Tree Farm for grazing, had been earmarked for cemetery expansion since the 1960s. All parties had understood the agreement, with the farmers’ children growing up back then calling the area the ‘cemetery’. 

The benefits this will bring are huge, including over 1,700 burial plots, new memorial plots, associated roads, footpaths, and more key infrastructure to support this. 

This amounts to 25 years of ongoing burials in Bristol, including vital space for a diverse range of faith burials to address community needs alongside an adjacent area for infant burials. 

We already have immense pressure building on the capacity to bury people in our city. A new area for Muslim baby burial is essential, which is why we have worked with Bristol’s Muslim Burial Group to design the baby burial area to have up to 275 burial plots, divided into sections with hedging and access paths, trees, and seating area with planting. Solving these issues now and preparing for the future is absolutely essential.

Protecting the SNCI at Yew Tree Farm and providing Bristol families with necessary burial space are not issues in conflict with eatchother. We can, and we will, do both to ensure we have a well-considered, beautiful place to bury and remember our loved ones, in a space that is also rich in nature and wildlife. We will continue to work hard, despite the noise of those who excel in creating heat rather than light, doing everything necessary to get this right.