A NEW graveyard is to be developed in Kilcar, where there is a ‘crisis situation’ over the number of available plots.
On Friday, Donegal County Council granted conditional planning permission for the construction of a new cemetery.
An application for the development, situated adjacent to the existing graveyard at Tawney, Kilcar, was submitted by Parish Priest Fr Eddie Gallagher in October.
In a letter to the local authority, Fr Gallagher said: “It is a crisis situation with only about eight new graves left in the existing graveyard.
“It is our hope to develop this new graveyard as soon as possible.”
Fr Gallagher noted that there are a number of people from other religious denominations interred in the cemetery.
Documents submitted to the Council say that there have been an average of 14 burials a year in Kilcar cemetery over the last five years.
The site of the proposed new cemetery is owned by the Parish and was acquired for the purpose of developing additional burial ground capacity over forty years ago.
The walls around the proposed site were constructed in the early 1980s.
The development will see the construction of a new cemetery with burial plots to meet the needs of the parish.
The application provides an underlying drainage system, replacement of earthen material deemed unsuitable, importation of earthen material deemed suitable to proposed raised finish levels, the provision of internal footpaths and plinth for grave markers.
The existing internal access road will be realigned and new vehicular access onto the adjacent road will be formed.
Further off-road parking will be provided while the existing vehicular access road will be changed to a pedestrian access point.
Donegal County Council granted permission subject to the conditions laid down by the local authority’s planning department.
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