A one-metre rule for memorial items left at Broxtowe cemeteries could soon be introduced, but bereaved families want more freedom for “older” graves.
Broxtowe Borough Council faced backlash and protests last year when bereaved families launched a petition in response to a July 2024 cabinet decision that required tribute items to be removed from graves at council-run cemeteries.
At this time, Chilwell Cemetery was the first of five borough-owned cemeteries that received a January 2025 deadline ordering maintenance teams to remove and dispose of tributes after this date.
The council’s reasoning for this was due to maintenance difficulties, health and safety concerns, and because the rules already existed but had not always been enforced.
Cabinet documents from 2009 confirm that rules had been in place since then, and council papers show cemetery rules from 2019 and 2023 both note the same prohibited items. Bereaved families previously said the authority only updated its “Notice of Interment” forms – that families sign – in 2023 to note prohibited grave items such as fencing, bedding plants, vases, windmills, glass, and alcohol, leading to confusion around the rules.
Following October’s controversy, council leader Milan Radulovic (Brox Alliance) called a 12-month suspension on the rules, setting up a working group with impacted families to find a “common-sense” approach. New collaborative rules – such as hazardous items being removed from all graves, graves purchased after August 2023 being allowed items within 2.5 feet from the front edge of the headstone plinth, and graves before that date remaining similar – were then put forward.
These proposals were set to be decided in June 2025, but the cabinet deferred the decision to allow more time for discussion between the council, families, and other stakeholders to go through reports. At the time, Cllr Radulovic said he was “angered” and “offended” by his own authority’s bereavement service after its June report rejected proposals and suggested the council had “inadvertently weakened” its own position by granting a 12-month suspension on the rules.
But more than one year later, the authority may have reached its compromise on tribute items just before Christmas, with documents released ahead of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s meeting on 15 December proposing memorial items and memorial gardens – up to a maximum of one metre from the headstone plinth – being allowed on graves.
All new graves across Broxtowe’s council-run cemeteries would have to abide by this one-metre rule, with older graves – whose memorials may be longer than one metre from the headstone – only having to adhere to this if they are reopened.
Documents state that all memorials must be at or below the width of the headstone at its base and be bounded by a kerb set installed by a registered stonemason or an agreed alternative.
A list of prohibited items is “to be reviewed and agreed” in collaboration with stakeholders and families, and exceptions should be made for a “small amount of additional decoration” for birthdays, to be removed 14 days after the birth date, and for Christmas, to be removed after 4 January.
Planted flowers, trees, or shrubs would not be allowed “due to the unsettling effects that roots can have on headstones and other features”, where these would have to be potted.
Impacted and bereaved families involved in the collaborative group with the council are calling for three amendments to be made to the proposed rules.
Families want older graves not to be subject to the proposed one-metre rule if they are reopened, all older graves to be permitted to have a full kerb set or edging installed regardless of whether already in place, and “additional decoration” to be extended to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and other religious holidays.
New proposals also include ensuring that grave owners are given a copy of the authority’s cemetery rules and regulations when signing interment forms, and the potential implementation of a “cooling-off period” of at least seven days before the signing of such forms to allow bereaved families time to “properly comprehend” cemetery rules.
As part of the council’s review into assessing new rules, it received comments over mixed messaging on whether tributes were allowed and mobility issues that older cemetery visitors can experience when navigating around grave memorials.
The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will discuss the proposals at next Monday’s meeting, where the decision will then be put forward for Cabinet approval the following day, on 16 December.
