Cemetery bosses drop divisive 'bunker' from plans for £18m revamp

Highgate cemetery has axed plans to build a controversial maintenance and toilet block as part of an £18m revamp after grave owners warned they would exhume the remains of their loved ones if it went ahead.

- Matthew Weaver

Grave owners at the north London cemetery cautiously welcomed the removal of what they called "the bunker" from a planning application that sparked dozens of objections, including from Jeremy Corbyn, the actors Jonathan Pryce and Bertie Carvel, and the widow of the sociologist Stuart Hall.

But they remain suspicious of the cemetery's management body, which had insisted during angry meetings that there was no alternative to building the gardeners' block on a part of the graveyard known as the mound, where almost 200 people were recently buried.

Grave owners warned that dropping the building from the application may be a "ploy" by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust (FHCT) to secure £18m of lottery funding to help redevelop the 36-acre (15-hectare) site. They fear that once the cash is secured the trust will resubmit plans for the contentious building.