Concerns raised over asbestos reportedly buried at Derbyshire cemetery

It follows concerns raised on social media that asbestos was being buried within Shirebrook Cemetery. The Derbyshire Times was contacted by a concerned resident who said they felt it was ‘really disrespectful’ to those who had been buried at the site and their families.

A spokesperson for Shirebrook Town Council said they were ‘aware’ of the concerns but they had not been responsible for digging burials since mid-2014 and that, while they were ‘confident’ they would have been informed had asbestos been discovered, they would be making enquiries into the matter.

They added that they appreciated the social media speculation would have caused ‘upset and worry’ and said the chairman of the council, Cllr Christopher Kane, had been attending his mother’s funeral on the day the Facebook post was published.

The cemetery, on Common Lane, is believed to have been founded in 1899 and was mentioned in Kelly’s Directory – the Victorian version of the Yellow Pages – in 1932. It is home to a number of war graves from the First and Second World War.

A spokesperson for Shirebrook Town Council said: “We are aware of a social media post that was circulated on the April 26 2023, insinuating that the Council are burying asbestos at Shirebrook Cemetery.

“To clarify, we do not conduct our own digging for burials at Shirebrook Cemetery and haven’t done so since mid-2014.

“As part of the service they supply to families, it is the Funeral Directors who directly employ private contract grave diggers to prepare each individual space and also arrange for them to return after burials to refill the plots.

“The Council [has] no involvement in this process; however, we are confident that if any asbestos had been discovered by those contractors, it would have been reported to us.

“We do appreciate the upset and worry that this social media post may have caused to families [whose] loved ones are buried at Shirebrook Cemetery as it did for our Chairman, whose own mother’s funeral was being held the same day as the Facebook post was released, and we therefore intend to make our own enquiries into this matter.”