New Derry cemetery and extension will provide burials for 30 years - Colr.

The new Derry cemetery and extension to the existing historic City Cemetery will provide burials for another 30 years on the west bank, a Derry Councillor has said.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

SDLP Councillor John Boyle was speaking after the Journal revealed this week that the Council has now completed the land acquisition for the new cityside cemetery at a site on Mullenan Road in the vicinity of Nixon’s Corner / Killea towards the Donegal border at Carrigans.

It has now been confirmed that it will be between three and five years before the new cemetery opens.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In a separate development on Wednesday of this week meanwhile Derry City & Strabane District Council’s Planning Committee granted planning permission for a 950-plot extension to the current City Cemetery.

SDLP Councillor John Boyle.  (1208JB41)SDLP Councillor John Boyle.  (1208JB41)
SDLP Councillor John Boyle. (1208JB41)

This will be developed along Southway, with work to commence soon.

It emerged at the committee meeting that without the new extension there are only enough plots left, 208, in the current cemetery to accommodate burials for the next year or two.

Commenting on the extension to the City Cemetery, Moor SDLP Councillor John Boyle said: “I was pleased to have had the opportunity to propose a new extension to the City Cemetery at this week’s Council Planning Committee.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The extension at Southway will provide 950 new plots and could accommodate up to 2,500 burials. The situation in relation to availability of new plots in the current City Cemetery was becoming critical with less than two years of availability.

“This is a vital development for the Council going forward in the immediate future over the next five years as only this week the Council have acquired lands on the Mullenan Road on the outskirts of the city for a totally new cemetery facility.

The Moor SDLP Councillor added: “The process of identifying a suitable site for a new cemetery has taken a considerable number of years and the Mullenan Road site represented the best opportunity for the future. However, it could take a further five years for this new burial ground to come on stream and as a result it was an immediate requirement to progress with the new extension to the City Cemetery on lands at Southway”.

Councillor Boyle concluded: “All told, when we include the existing plots, the new extension and the new cemetery at Mullenan there will be capacity for thirty years of future burials with options to extend the new cemetery at Mullenan in the years beyond that time frame.”