What should we do with run-down Kirklees cemeteries?

Dec 17 2008 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

DESIGNERS have been asked to suggest plans for run-down cemetery chapels.

Kirklees Council wants ideas for the historic buildings, including the two listed Victorian buildings in Edgerton Cemetery.

The chapel has long been boarded up and fenced off, while non-tenanted parts of Tower House suffer wet rot with water entering from the ceiling and floor.

The council’s Cabinet member for bereavement services, Clr David Hall, is looking for suggestions for the Edgerton chapels, as well as two buildings each in Dewsbury and Heckmondwike cemeteries and one each in Cleckheaton and Liversedge.

He said: “We share the concerns of the many people who visit our cemeteries who make comments to us about the state of the cemetery chapels.

“The challenge is – what do we do with them? Simply making them watertight would cost between £1m and £2m, together with a further £100,000 a year to maintain them. That does not represent a particularly good investment.

“We have a lot of creative designers and thinkers in Kirklees and we want to test the water to see if there is any interest from people or companies to put ideas forward for keeping these historic buildings and giving them a new lease of life.”