¨ Details of our Open Day on Saturday 9th May have been advertised far and wide so hopefully you will have seen one of our adverts. This year in addition to the usual guided Crematorium tours we have a Cemetery heritage walk and a 5k charity fun run.

¨ The project to install electronic Cemetery gates has been completed, they mirror the Crematorium gates and are programmed to follow the displayed opening and closing times.

¨ Further to the planting of nearly 50 trees and shrubs in the Oxford Burial Ground, we have just planted another 14 trees across the Cemetery & Crematorium.

¨ We would like to politely inform everyone that we retain ashes for 6 months before contacting families to see if final arrangements have been made.

¨ As we are about to enter the supposed warmer and drier months our March plant order will be the last before Autumn, we tried planting well into April last year and due to weather conditions many of the plants didn’t survive.

¨ Our website, colchestercrematorium.co.uk contains a wealth of information from opening times, maps, scheduled funerals, memorials, news and bereavement support groups. In addition to the link to our Online Book of Remembrance, there is now a link to a short virtual tour of the Crematorium.

¨ Our programme of essential Winter tree works has continued, with works in the Gardens of Remembrance and Cemetery. Stump grinding has now taken place, these areas have been left slightly mounded whilst settling takes place.

¨ Our Living Memorials improvement programme is continuing, with good initial results. Recent soil sampling will hopefully show how this has improved the chemical balance in our soil.

¨ Through our metal recycling scheme we are delighted to announce a forthcoming donation of £17,000 being split between EACH (East Anglia Children’s Hospice) and The Not Forgotten.

¨ If you encounter any anti-social behaviour, see any dangerous trees / branches or notice any other damage please report it to the Cemetery & Crematorium Office. We recently had an incident of someone fouling inside one the green shelters in the Oxford Burial Ground.

¨ We will be carrying out another check of all benches to ensure that they are safe. As a reminder all benches must be supplied and installed by Bereavement Services.

¨ We have recently started providing the popular Private Gardens in a third area called Beech Avenue this is in front of the Beech trees where the arbour benches were installed.

¨ Thanks to The Conservation Volunteers 6 stag beetle pyramids have been built within the Cemetery, a photo is on our website. We will soon be introducing additional biodiversity projects into the Cemetery & Crematorium grounds, including log pile habitats, hibernaculum and bug boxes.