The Christchurch City Council is required to periodically review all bylaws and has carried out a review of its 2013 Cemeteries Bylaw, together with a review of the Cemeteries Handbook which contains the detail of the rules and requirements for cemeteries
Project status: Decision made
Open for feedback: 1 August 2018 to 3 September 2018
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Consultation has now closed
Named submissions and a staff report were considered by the Hearings Panel. These documents are now available online(external link).
The Hearings Panel considered all information presented and will make a recommendation to the Council, who will then make a final decision.
These reviews are intended to ensure that Council’s controls for cemeteries reflect changing circumstances, are effective, easy to administer and user friendly. The Council proposes only minor changes to its cemeteries bylaw because it considers that the bylaw has largely been working well. In terms of the Cemeteries Handbook, the Council has identified a great number of (mostly minor) improvements that can be made to the current handbook and has therefore decided to make a replacement Cemeteries Handbook 2018.
In addition to many changes designed to make the handbook easier to read and add clarity to the current controls, there are new and emerging issues that Council wants to address. New handbook provisions include changes in the rules for monuments and adornment of graves, new provisions for carrying out work on ‘heritage graves’ (pre-1950 graves) and in heritage cemeteries, a rule forbidding the scattering of ashes in cemeteries and new provisions for ‘natural and green’ burials.
Before making a submission below you can read the full reviewed Bylaw and the new draft Cemeteries Handbook [PDF, 3.4 MB].