Legacy Plot Reservation Management Policy

Brian Stockwell195:05

I was just thinking about my recollections of the Tewantin Christmas probably sold you little glowing lights from the scouts. I remember one of the first times that my son went and it was the big semi-trailer with the slippery dip and you have to walk up these stairs with the tiny little I have to admit I do suffer from vertigo. He'd tell her up and I was holding the chain all the way up. So that's my memory of freaking out in the back of a truck. But anyway, they are all good community events. Anyone else? No, I think it's all been said. Okay, I've got the motion. Those in favour? That's unanimous. Thank you. And we are now up to 7.8, which is something completely different. That's the legacy plot reservation management policy. And we have the same two people.

Troy's our amazing cemetery supervisor. So thank you, Troy. So the purpose of today's report is to seek council's adoption of the legacy plot reservation management policy which sets out a clear and respectful process to review and, when appropriate, return unused cemetery plots reserved more than 25 years ago back into active use. So this matter now, this matters now for a few key reasons. Firstly, the Tewantin cemetery has reached capacity for new traditional burials, making it better use of existing land an immediate priority. Secondly, there are more than 200 unused reserve plots across our cemeteries that are currently unavailable to the community. Thirdly, historical arrangements didn't require plots to be used within a timeframe, creating inefficiencies and limiting options for families today. Finally, Queensland does not have a clear legislative framework in this area, so we've sought legal advice and are now proposing a consistent, transparent and defensible local approach to manage this responsibility, which is in line with what other Queensland councils are doing. So the outcome being sought is council's agreement to introduce a fair, well governed process that allows us to identify long unused plots, making unreasonable efforts to contact families and return unclaimed plots to community use. So before we go into discussion, I must say that plots are already getting returned back to Council as without this process such, but this gives us an opportunity to look at additional plots where we already know that families may have passed or those families actually don't need to utilise those plots, so it actually gives us that administration process that's very transparent and. To be proactive rather than reactive. Correct, yeah.