Any chance that Wagga City Council would move to fixed-term leases on its cemetery plots could be dead and buried next week.
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Staff have recommended to councillors that they formally rule out making use of state laws that would allow them to remove human remains and memorials once a plot lease expires.
"Council cemeteries have sufficient land available to provide for continued cemetery and crematoria operations and interments for a number of years," a report to councillors stated.
"The adoption of renewable interment rights would cause considerable concern and distress to the community."
Councillors have been contacted by numerous upset relatives of people buried at Wagga who were afraid the city would adopt 25 to 99-year burial plot leases.
Cr Dan Hayes brought a motion in February seeking clarification on the council's stance on the newly amended Cemeteries and Crematoria Act.
"The purpose was to make it clear to the community that Wagga will not be adopting this policy brought in by the state government," he said.
"A number of community members had been asking me for a while about Wagga's plan and it was obvious it would not be accepted here.
"This report will make it clear to the community that the policy will not be adopted here and provide that reassurance many people in the community were seeking."
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Catholic Diocese of Wagga priest Brendan Lee said the region's Christians would be relieved by the council ruling out the used of leased plots.
Father Lee said he was "100 per cent" behind the council's move to rule out burial plot recycling.
"For some people the idea is very disturbing, especially for Christians who believe that at the end of time their bodies will rise from the dead," he said.
"We always show great respect for the body, even though the soul is gone we still respect the remains even in this day and age, as secular as we are.
"The Australian Army is very strict on returning remains from overseas."
Councillors are due to vote on accepting the report on burial policies on Monday.
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