Council start legal action over campsite at Stapleford cemetery

Broxtowe Borough Council has started legal action over an encampment at a town cemetery. Trespassers have apparently set up living quarters at Stapleford Cemetery on Cemetery Lane.

Now, the process is underway to remove them, the council said. A notice posted online said: "We are aware of trespassers at Stapleford Cemetery and the legal process is underway to remove them from the site. Our teams have actively engaged with the group, and have offered support to them to move into alternative accommodation."

An anonymous source said that the encampment of homeless people had been increasing in size over a period of time. They said: "The people now have taken over the surrounding paths as they have set up a large fire with chairs all around. Rubbish is all over and the situation is preventing people from using the cemetery as a place of peace and reflection."

Stapleford Cemetery contains thousands of graves. This includes 18 war graves of those who were killed in World War I or II, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The current situation bears resemblance to one at The Rock Cemetery near Nottingham city centre, which was closed by the city council for a number of weeks so that it could move some dwellers living in tents from the site. Stapleford Parish Council, which runs Stapleford Cemetery, has not yet commented on the situation on their website.