Controversial plans for crematorium in Cookham withdrawn

A controversial application to build a new crematorium on greenbelt land in Cookham has been withdrawn.

Just days after Royal Borough’s portal was updated with more documents for the application, a notice was uploaded saying the application for a new crematorium on land off Switchback Road North and Long Lane was withdrawn on Friday, September 5.

No reason was given for the withdrawal in the notice. Elegy, the funeral company behind the plans, has been contacted for comment.

Since the decision, another document has been uploaded, outlining concerns from the Royal Borough’s sustainability policy officer over the company’s proposed gas cremator.

Elegy had been asked to provide more details about why it chose gas over an electric cremator.

In documents uploaded last week, it outlined its reasons, including issues with electric cremators being slower and more costly, and 'not yet ready for the mainstream deployment'.

Elegy said the chosen cremator was capable of being reconfigured ‘in the future’ to either a hybrid, using both electric and gas heating, or becoming fully electric.

While this response 'satisfied' the sustainability policy officer, they said the applicant had not met the requirements of the Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) and needed to provide more information surrounding aspects such as carbon emissions and how long it will take the site to transition to renewable energy.

The officer said they would object to the plans 'unless the applicant is given the opportunity to respond to the comments'.

The plans, first unveiled in May last year, looked to build a crematorium with a ceremony hall and memorial arboretum.

The Royal Borough does not have a crematorium of its own and Elegy argues the development would ‘relieve pressure on existing facilities’.

The closest crematoriums to the Maidenhead area are in Slough, Bracknell and Amersham. 

Planning documents said the plans would ‘meet the needs of a crematorium that will seat 100 people’ and the chapel would be the largest area of the building, featuring a connecting lobby area for overspill.

Many Cookham groups, including the Cookham Society, WildCookham and Cookham Parish Council spoke out against the plans, raising fears over Cookham’s character being erased and the ‘dangerous’ impact on traffic.

The plans were submitted in November and have received numerous objections since.

At a planning meeting in December, Cookham Parish Council (CPC) called the plans ‘crazy’ and ‘ridiculous’.

In objections submitted in June, CPC said it ‘continues to consider the application highly inappropriate’.

It had already ‘strongly objected’ to the application twice in December and once in February, citing an ‘inadequate demonstration of borough-wide need’ and ‘inappropriate development in the greenbelt’.

It also objected over concerns relating to traffic congestion and safety risks ‘on the very narrow and rural Long Lane, and exacerbation of existing traffic issues in the nearby already congested Cookham’.

Planning documents stated the proposed service times at the crematorium were between 10am and 4pm, which pre-application advice ‘recognised would help ensure that trips to and from the site fall outside the peak periods’.