ABA INFORMATIVE fact sheets each focus on specific issues of concern to burial authorities and are generally released to members in response to a specific enquiry. They are constantly updated and new papers introduced.

Collectively they form a valuable information resource for burial ground management and increasingly the ABA is being asked to supply the full set. This currently comprises 29 subject headings and more than 40 pages bound in booklet form and for this, a charge of £25 is levied towards production costs.

Single issue problems may still be answered with the free provision of one or two Informatives, which together with the telephone / email helpline continues as a service for members.

Subjects include:

• The Association of Burial Authorities in relation to the UK burials and death care industry
• Aims and activities of the Association of Burial Authorities
• Planning/ extending a cemetery or churchyard - the ABA service
• Acquiring a cemetery/checklist
• Strategic management of land for burial
• Layout of burial plots and grave digging
• Burial of body parts/retained organs
• Standards and management of public funerals
• Grants of rights of burial
• Determination of rights and agreements
• Implications of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Pathways and access
• Reuse of graves in cemeteries
• Reuse of graves in churchyards

Memorial safety issues

• Health and safety law in burial grounds
• Responsibilities in closed churchyards
• Corporate or individual liability
• Councils not exempt from corporate killing
• Product liability - European Union Directive
• Safety auditors - qualifications
• Alternative fixing devices / ground anchors
• Making safe methodologies
• Natural or ‘green’ burials
• Private or back garden burials

Consecration of burial land

• Is consecration necessary or desirable?
• Some legal aspects and controls
• Christian theology, the law and exhumation
• Making safe memorials on consecrated land
• Glossary of funerary and burial terminology

Other publications

The Guide to Management of Safety in Burial Grounds (2001) - £85 + £5p&p – ABA members £75. Order from Loss Control, Zurich Municipal, Southwood Crescent, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 0NJ Fax: 01252 376010 or 549256.

Published by ABA. ISBN 0 9541113 0 3

Guide to Funerals and Bereavement by Sam Weller. (1999) Kogan Page. ISBN 0 7494 3057 5 Paperback 269 pages £9.99 – but direct from the ABA to members: £6.50 inc pp

ABA Info – quarterly newsletter, free to members. Annual subscription £25

Leaflet - Guide to Best Practice in Burial Grounds - £1

Booklet - Planning for Memorials (1989) – psychology, concepts and practical issues of cemetery design - £4.75

Booklet - Cremation Gardens (1990) - commemoration after cremation, including plans and pictures of the award winning memorial garden at the 1986 National Garden Festival in Stoke-on-Trent - £4.75

Modern Model Rules & Regulations for Operation of a Burial Ground - written in crystal clear English and with a consumer friendly approach - Copyright © The Association of Burial Authorities - nominal licence fee for use of copyright

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Monumental Angel at Brompton Cemetery,West London. Photo by Jonathan Gili.

The Holgate 'only once' stone by letter carver David Holgate.