In June 2009 the petitioner sought the reservation of a double depth gravespace for the interment of the mortal remains of himself and his wife, both of whom were in their eighties. The PCC and incumbent did not support the petition as the churchyard had only two remaining spaces, enough for approximately two more years of burials. In 2005 the previous incumbent had signed a document purporting to give the petitioner and his wife the right ‘in perpetuity’ to be buried in the churchyard whilst it remained an open churchyard. The petitioner and his wife had believed that the document gave them the right to burial in the churchyard. In refusing the petition the chancellor noted that the letter did no more than record the right that the petitioner and his wife (as parishioners) had to burial in the churchyard whilst it remained open. He balanced the very real disappointment of the petitioner and his wife against the rights of other parishioners to burial in the churchyard, rejecting as irrelevant the petitioner's submission that the reservation of a gravespace would expedite the closure of the churchyard, as desired by the PCC. [RA]
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