Letter – Watch this plot! Syston Cemetery may be moving in!

The Ridgemere now faces another major threat. For some considerable time now Syston Town Council has been preparing an application to create a new cemetery on land immediately adjacent to the western end of Ridgemere Lane. An initial application for planning permission was withdrawn last year after the County Council made it clear that they had, if you’ll pardon the pun, grave reservations about the site and access to it. In particular, they felt that the junction of Ridgemere Lane and Barkby Road was potentially very dangerous and that further investigative work was required on the archaeology of the site. The application was withdrawn in 2008.
Archaeologists have dug several trenches across the area in question to investigate whether any valuable remains exist. A fine piece of ridge and furrow has been scarred by an archaeological trenches dug by a huge mechanical digger! I do hope that the ground will be restored to its former condition! This is a follow-up to a major geophysical survey of the field carried out earlier in the year. Clearly Syston Town Council are intent on preparing a second application for their new cemetery and are quite prepared to spend significant amounts of money in order to do so. Why they are not investigating sites adjacent to the old A46 or elsewhere within their boundaries is a mystery. Perhaps they should have considered this problem before allocating so much of their suitable land for new housing, effectively narrowing the green belt between themselves and the surrounding villages so drastically?
The site now under consideration is totally unsuitable as a cemetery for Syston. It is too far away for Syston residents, particularly those that are elderly or infirm, to visit easily. The roads to the area have no pavements. The roads themselves are extremely busy with fast traffic. The junction at the corner of Ridgemere Lane is on the brow of a hill in a 50 mph zone and would be very hazardous indeed to negotiate with a full funeral procession of vehicles. The field in question is a lovely ridge and furrow meadow, adjacent to the Ridgemere, with super open views across the city and the valley. The Ridgemere is a wonderful resource for all the people of Syston and the surrounding villages: it doesn’t need traffic lights, pavements, road signs, road lighting etc.
I do hope that the residents of Barkby, in whose parish this site stands, and Queniborough and indeed Syston itself, can unite to convince those responsible for this misconceived proposal that they need to think again! I urge everybody, particularly the two parish councils, to make their views clear to Syston now at this early stage.
John Tinning