Residents living in the shadow of a cemetery where developers want to construct luxury homes over dead bodies have blamed their council of ‘taking them for fools’ after it emerged a full exhumation did not take place as promised.
Calls are mounting to stop the council’s plans to build 20 homes over 11 ‘sacred’ gravestones, including one belonging to a baby, at Tunbridge Wells Cemetery in Benhall Mill Road.
Some 15 paupers were buried between 1873 and 1928, and it was previously revealed how Tunbridge Wells Borough Council had moved to exhume all of the bodies in 2020 amid plans to build over the former burial site.
However, a Freedom of Information request, submitted by the campaign group Friends of the Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, today reveals that only four of the 15 bodies were exhumed between September 28 and October 6, 2020.
The graves dug for full exhumation with approval from the Ministry of Justice were named as George Langridge, Maria Thomsett, George Cross and George Payne.
It means that at least 11 others, including baby Frances Sarah Day, are still potentially buried beneath the ground at the depot where the council intends to construct the 16 houses and four flats.
The disclosure has sparked accusations that the council has kept residents in the dark, with locals saying it is ‘incredibly disrespectful’ and ‘immoral’ to build over land where not all the bodies have been removed.
Documents seen by MailOnline reveal the Ministry of Justice issued directions for the exhumation, which included the demand: ‘You must remove all human remains from the area hatched on the attached plan prior to starting any development work.’
Following the disclosure that only four bodies had been disinterred, campaigner Justin Quinn told MailOnline: ‘It’s insulting to be told one thing by the local council only to find out via a Freedom of Information request that the facts are very different.
‘Many of us in the local community are emboldened by the sense that, regardless of the questionable moral and legal implications of the development, we don’t like being taken for fools.’
The campaigners only submitted the FOI after those working on the exhumation told elderly neighbours they thought the remains were buried too deep to find.
This allowed them to ‘uncover the truth that there are still people buried in the ground where these houses are to be built’, Mr Quinn added.
‘Our hunch is they are trying to keep it as quiet as possible because they are aware it wouldn’t be a popular if people knew what the situation was.’
Athanasios Sermbezis, whose parents-in-law are buried together in the working part of the cemetery, is among those fighting to stop development on the land which lies within the walls of the working cemetery but is now used as a maintenance depot.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the 79-year-old said: ‘My children were born and live in Tunbridge Wells. My grandchildren were born and live in Tunbridge Wells, so obviously to us the cemetery is a very sacred place.
‘For them to try and hush us and do it so quickly without really providing the evidence that has been cleared.
‘My concern is why they are trying to get planning permission and do this when there are people buried there.
‘We think from a religious point of view, it is immoral to build something on the top of a burial, even if it is an old burial. It is not morally right to build something where there are dead bodies.
‘People might say ‘We don’t care, we need houses. Yes, we need houses, but not on top of dead people.’
More than 30 Tunbridge Wells residents have also raised objections to the plans.
One resident, Tamara Galloway, wrote: ‘As someone with my grandparents, both my parents and my uncle buried in Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, I’m appalled by this application to build houses on part of this working cemetery.
‘The investigations carried out recently did not find all the people buried here. Since these graves were unmarked, there may well be others buried here whose names were not recorded.’
Campaigner Robin Parsons, a member of Friends of Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, said: ‘I am horrified that you are proposing to build houses over the area in the Cemetery designated as the burial ground of paupers. We know that not all the bodies have been removed.
‘What you are proposing is incredibly disrespectful. Would you be doing this if famous or influential people were buried there?
‘If the Council wants to erect houses, it should not be at the expense of the cemetery, which remains one of the most beautiful areas of Tunbridge Wells.’
Another resident, Elaine Lawrence, wrote: ‘I particularly can not believe you can build on any burial ground, let alone consecrated ground! Please stop this madness! And think of the huge impact on relatives of those buried, and instead of a sanctuary of peace, it will become a place of noise, dirt and lost habitat for wildlife.’
Mr Sermbezis, who came to the UK from Greece in the early 1970s, said the land earmarked for development lies within the cemetery walls.
He said: ‘The Church of England in the 1800s would not accept dead people in their cemetery if they were catholic, poor, or if they committed suicide.
‘So they created a small space in the corner of the cemetery to put people who did not conform with the church.
‘The land was later donated to the council, who are custodians of it.’
In total, 15 bodies were buried in the small patch of land, including one of a baby.
In 2019, the then-Conservative council applied for approval to construct 11 houses on the land in the cemetery.
They were told they had to take precautions to disinter all of the bodies and bury them in the main cemetery.
Nevertheless, the now-Liberal Democrat-run council only found four of the 15 bodies.
Mr Sermbezis added: ‘Out of those four bodies, one of those was called George Cross, we didn’t have his name in our records.
‘Either they invented it or they found another body.
‘But their excuse is that they found the bodies. We are saying if you only found four, you have to go back and find the other 11.
‘I am Greek. In Greece, they have just discovered Alexander the Great’s father. And you’re talking about 1000 years ago, they have been missing. Bones don’t disappear that quickly.’
The retired water engineer said that under the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981, all bodies must be removed from the ground before any new building can be erected.
Campaigners also say this is ‘sacred’ and ‘consecrated’ land which cannot be built upon under planning laws.
A memorial gravestone was erected, which claimed to have the ‘reinterred remains’ of all 15 paupers. But with only four bodies disinterred, locals say it is designed to portray that ‘it’s all been dealt with’.
The council plans to build 16 homes made up of 10 three-bed houses and six two-bed houses. They also want to construct a flat block of four homes, with two two-bed flats and two one-bed flats.
Plans show they want to build 30 parking spaces, 20 of which will have electric vehicle charging points.
A council source said the council were given a letter from the Diocese of Rochester, which previously had ecclesiastical responsibility for the cemetery, confirming the ground was not consecrated.
A spokesperson for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council said: ‘We can confirm that the bodies were exhumed by a specialist exhumation company, the detailed surveys and work took place during autumn 2020 once necessary permissions had been granted.
‘The found remains were treated with dignity and reburied in a different part of the cemetery.
‘A memorial was erected with the names of the deceased in the cemetery grounds, and all the works were carried out in consultation with the Friends of the Cemetery.’
Cemeteries ought to remain sacred forever, but then some would sell their dead mothers when they smell the colour of money. I don’t even think they’d need to be dead!
Nothing is sacrosanct anymore, and it’s appalling. Values are being discarded, but our cemeteries are places of peace, remembrance and respect. Leave them that way.
It should be in the interest of the developers to come clean and remove the bodies because if they don’t, they could risk damaging the saleability of their buildings. Can you imagine living over the bones of people? That is so disrespectful, and who in their right mind would want to live there?
Unfortunately, when it comes to greed, money, and profit, respect is nonexistent.
This is just another strategy where any governing body, be it local or national, is riding roughshod over the people of this country.
Unfortunately, we are too passive, and they have taken advantage of this, and unless we take back control, it will only get worse. Is Reform the answer? I actually don’t know, but something has got to change.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 