Proposed cemetery and burial fees

A Cemeteries Strategy for changing times

Council’s cemeteries provide an important service to the local community in times that are often confronting and difficult. Cemeteries also play an important role in documenting the history of the Kempsey Shire and are of significant cultural, historical, and social value.

However, the way that cemeteries operate is changing in many ways including:

• increased regulation and legislative requirements
• competing needs for an increasingly commercial industry
• changing burial preferences

Council has developed a Cemetery Strategy and Master Plan 2022 to guide our approach to improving and maintaining these cemeteries over the short, medium and long-term. The Cemetery Strategy and Master Plan was adopted at the June 2022 Council Meeting.

When Council's full set of 2022-23 Fees and Charges were adopted it included an ommission where the cemeteries and burial fees did not clearly reflect the new strategy.

In the 2022-23 Fees and Charges, the reservation fee increased from $744 to $2,100 and the burial fee reduced from $3,235 to $2,000.

This new fee structure is still applicable for reservations made on or after 1 July 2022.

As such, the following proposed fee structure is being exhibited:

Submissions can be made on the new cemetery and burial fees by one of the following methods:

1. Complete the submission form

2. Provide a written response

General Manager

Kempsey Shire Council

PO BOX 3078

West Kempsey, NSW. 2440

Feedback closes 4PM 23 August 2022.