Residents vow to fight for Teddington’s last allotments

Teddington residents have upped their fight against plans to convert their neighbourhood's last allotments into a graveyard.

Locals have been calling on Richmond Council to rethink its decision to extend Teddington Cemetery onto Shacklegate Lane allotments since it agreed on the plans in December to meet demand for burial spaces.

Neighbours have vowed to keep fighting after the council rejected their petition asking it to reconsider the decision in March.

The petition, which was signed by 1,758 residents, warned destroying the cherished 120-year-old allotments to extend the cemetery was "just a short-term solution to the longer-term problem of burial space" shortages in Richmond.

Neighbours and allotment holders told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the council had failed to put in place a long-term sustainable burial strategy, involving reusing plots, to protect the allotments, like other local authorities had managed – including the City of London Corporation.

While the council granted permission for the cemetery to be extended onto the allotments in 1993, it only ended up taking some of the site and it was not until December last year that it formally approved plans to take the remaining allotments.

Residents said they felt the council had bulldozed ahead with the plans despite facing very different circumstances to those in 1993 – a climate emergency, declared in 2019, which made protecting allotments even more important.

They pointed to the council agreeing in 2018 to introduce a grave reclamation scheme when more burial space was needed in Richmond, which they said could have provided enough plots without needing to take all of the remaining allotments.

Reclaimed graves must be at least 75 years old and have extra burial space.

Eight years later, residents told the LDRS they felt the council had been negligent as it had not put such a scheme in place.

They said the council had considered taking the allotments in two sections when it wanted to extend the cemetery again, but it was now taking them all – meaning they would be lost completely, which they described as a short-term fix that would permanently destroy a long-term community resource.

The extension is set to provide more than 700 new burial spaces at the cemetery and would be used up in around 30 years.

Resident Jane Cowling, 54, said: "They have not stuck to their promises, what they said in 2018 that they should do, and they've actually been quite negligent in handling their responsibilities, and it feels like they're just trying to pass every other excuse back onto us."

Jane said the allotments had brought the community together for decades – with owners now facing displacement onto different sites in the borough, or giving up having an allotment entirely if they could not travel outside of Teddington.

Jane said: "They're a real green lung in the heart of our community. Not only do we have individual allotment holders, but there's also a number of community groups that use it.

"It's a real convening point for people to come and get into the outdoors to grow some vegetables, to chat and build relationships and community."

She added: "It seems such a shame to me that they want to expand that space. Not only is it really quite an intrusion on the residential space here, but I think they're prioritising the dead over the living."

Council officers told the environment committee in March there was no burial space left in Teddington, as the last plot had been sold, and the authority needed to move forward with the plans as quickly as possible to provide new plots for the borough while it looked for long-term solutions.

They said the council was investigating reusing existing burial plots to maximise space, but this would only be possible in the long term.

Resident Candace Taylor's daughters grew up playing on the allotments, where she has owned a plot for 25 years – the site is where one of her children, who is now a marine biologist, learnt to love nature.

The 62-year-old said: "I'm a primary school teacher in the local area and the children from the local school, lots of them walk down past the allotments and really enjoy talking to the allotment holders and looking at the chickens and just understanding where food comes from, which in this day of mobile phones and everything is very, very important."

Candace said the council had pledged to protect allotments, respond to the climate emergency and focus on sustainability, "yet they've made the decision to do this, so it just doesn't really match what they said that they would do".

Richmond's Local Plan up to 2039 says the council "will protect existing allotments".

Resident Paul Cuff, 79, who has owned an allotment on the site for 40 years, also said they were vital for residents' physical and mental health.

Paul said the committee's handling of their petition in March was "just a nod to a democratic process, but nothing else".

He said: "There was no discussion, there was no real answer to any of the points that we'd raised in support of the petition, it was just a total farce.

"It wasn't even voted on… the petition asked them to reconsider their decision to take these allotments and use them for cemetery ground, and there wasn't even a vote on it."

Paul described the immense support their campaign had received from the community, who did not want to see the allotments lost forever.

He said: "The support for the petition was overwhelming… most people felt very strongly about the fact that it was being converted into cemetery use and it's so unnecessary because there is plenty of space, despite what the council are saying, there's plenty of space which could be reused in the actual existing cemetery."

The campaigners have launched a website with templates for people to email their local MP and ward councillors to push for a review of whether alternative provision can be found and the cemetery expansion can be redesigned to keep some or all of the existing plots.

Candace added: "We've just launched a website because we're not giving up, and how people can help is to email their MP and ward councillors… on the website there's easy to email templates and contact details for the councillors so that would really, really help us because we're not giving up. Once the allotments are gone, they're gone forever."

The website can be viewed here.

A Richmond Council spokesperson told the LDRS it understood the importance of the allotments to the community, and had not taken the decision lightly, but it had to act now to ensure continued provision of local burial space as the cemetery would reach capacity by summer.

The spokesperson said: "Many plot holders understand why this step is now being taken. This will deliver more than 700 new burial spaces, securing burial provision for around 30 years.

"The land at Shacklegate Lane has been designated for cemetery use for many years, and the temporary nature of the allotment use here has been clearly communicated and understood.

"While we recognise the temporary use of this land for allotments has brought many benefits to our residents, the borough offers a range of other allotment spaces.

"We remain committed to supporting every affected plot holder, offering alternative sites and ongoing assistance throughout this transition.

"We're focused on the cemetery remaining a green, welcoming, and accessible space for residents.

"We are developing plans to improve biodiversity, create new opportunities for volunteering, and establish accessible community gardening projects – ensuring that wellbeing, nature, and community life continue to flourish here for decades to come."