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GENERAL CEMETERY BILL
IN PARLIAMENT
SESSION 2024–25
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that application has been made to Parliament by General Cemetery Company (the Company”) for leave to introduce a Bill in this Session under the above name or short title.
The purpose of the Bill is to update the regulation and management of the Company and of the Kensal Green Cemetery and Crematorium (“the cemetery”) to enable the Company to register as a private company under the Companies Act 2006, and will also permit the Company to transfer the ownership and management of the cemetery to a charitable body which would become the burial authority. These changes would enable grants to be obtained in order to repair and conserve the many historic buildings and structures in the cemetery.
The Bill will also authorise the burial authority to extinguish old rights of burial in grave spaces, and to disturb and reinter human remains in graves in order to increase the space for further interments in such graves and improve the cemetery, as well as conferring power to use appropriately or remove altogether from the cemetery any memorials on such graves. It would provide the burial authority with equivalent powers to those that are already available to local authority run burial grounds and certain private burial authorities in London. These powers would enable the cemetery to continue to operate and secure the long-term sustainability of the site.
On and after 4 December 2024 a copy of the Bill may be inspected and copies of it obtained at the price of £3 each at the offices of:
| Location | Opening Hours |
| The General Cemetery Company Harrow Road London W10 4RA |
Mondays to Fridays: 09:00 to 16:30 Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day: Closed |
| BDB Pitmans LLP One Bartholomew Close London EC1A 7BL |
Mondays to Fridays: 09:30 to 17:30 Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and 27 December 2024: Closed |
Objection to the Bill may be made by depositing a Petition against it in the Office of the Clerk of the Parliaments, if the Bill is introduced in the House of Lords, or in the Private Bill Office of the House of Commons, if the Bill is introduced in that House. The latest date for the deposit of such a Petition in the First House will be 30 January 2025 if the Bill originates in the House of Commons, or 6 February 2025 if it originates in the House of Lords. The latest date for deposit of such a Petition in the Second House will be the tenth day after the first reading of the Bill in that House or, if the House is not sitting on that day, on the next day on which that House sits.
Further information regarding petitioning may be found on Parliament’s webpage at:
https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/bills/private/privatebillpetition/ or by contacting either:—
the Office of the Clerk of the Parliaments, House of Lords: E-mail: hlprivatebills@parliament.uk Telephone: 020 7219 3231
the Private Bill Office, House of Commons: E-mail: prbohoc@parliament.uk Telephone: 020 7219 3250
BDB Pitmans LLP: E-mail: pamthompson@bdbpitmans.com Telephone: 020 7783 3437
Dated this 4th day of December 2024
BDB PITMANS LLP, One Bartholomew Close, London EC1A 7BL – Solicitors and Parliamentary Agents