Memorials in parks

The law on scattering ashes in the UK is fairly relaxed. You can scatter or bury ashes in your own garden if you wish. There is nothing explicit in the legislation to prevent people disposing of cremated ashes. Whilst the law may be on your side, the difficulty may come in gaining permission to scatter or bury ashes on someone else’s land. You should definitely have the landowner’s permission and certain places are off limits. We understand the importance of scattering a loved one’s ashes to celebrate and remember the life of, or mark the passing, of a loved one.

However, we ask that you observe the following guidelines.

• Please make sure you let us know where you wish to scatter your loved ones ashes, as land owner you do need our permission, we need a record of where this happens and have certain restrictions
• War Memorial Park has specific restrictions, please contact the park for advice on 024 7697 7770.
• We do allow the scattering of ashes in rivers, but not in still water bodies such as lakes and ponds. Environment Agency advice (PDF)
• Cremation ashes can have serious impact upon the local environment. Some of our locations have plant species, which provide habitat for local wildlife and soil ecology which are very sensitive to human ashes which contain a lot of phosphate and calcium which may kill the tree roots and local habitat. Therefore we do not allow ashes to be scattered in any of our conservation sites, nature parks or wild areas or sites of Special Scientific Interest.
• Ashes may not be scattered directly into a tree planting hole as they may burn the roots of the tree and affect its health. They may be scattered around the tree after planting (please avoid clumping ashes).
• Do not leave anything that will not biodegrade such as offerings of coins, clothing or jewellery at the site.
• Do not leave plastic flowers, notes or physical structures at the site.
• Real flowers may be left at the time of scattering and at each subsequent annual anniversary if you wish, but please remove them after one to two weeks as they can impact on other visitors enjoying the site with their family. Flowers on site after two weeks will be removed by council staff.
• Do not cut or remove natural vegetation such as plants and trees.

For more advice or to notify us of your wish to scatter cremated ashes, please contact us.