By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Gloucester City Council has apologised again for another cemetery error after a woman who bought a burial plot next to her parents’ grave discovered that a namesake had been buried in her space.
Sallyann Anderson said she bought the plot at Coney Hill cemetery next to her parents after her mother was buried with her father in 2018.
She has the deed for the plot but was shocked to discover a few weeks ago that somebody else with the same first name as her was buried in the plot.
“It was the anniversary of my father’s death on March 17, St Patrick’s Day, so my husband and I went up to the grave. And next door someone has been buried in what I considered my plot,” she said.
“And she had the same name as me which was very worrying.”
She said her father was buried there in 1980 and her mother was interred with him in 2018.
“I asked to buy the plot after my mother died. I bought the plot as a family plot for me and my husband.
“I’ve been going up there for years thinking it will be fine. At least I know where I’m going to be. I’ll be next door to my mum and dad.
“But when I went up there on St Patrick’s Day it was a shock to find someone else buried there. I read the flowers to see who it was and it was my name.
“Her first name is Sally and middle name is Ann while my name is Sallyann, all one word. It was a bit of a shock. I was quite upset.”
Mrs Sanderson said she was told there had been a “clerical error”.
The system currently used to record burial is ledger based dating back to 1901.
Sallyann and her husband John don’t know what is going on and say they are waiting to hear back from the council.
“They were going to speak to the other family and then ring us,” she said.
“That will be two weeks on Monday since we last heard from them. They have all got computers on their desks.
“Surely there should be something in place where if someone has the deeds to a plot they don’t give it to someone else.
“I do feel sorry for the other family because their loved one is in my plot.”
She contacted City Councillor Alastair Chambers (Community Independents, Matson, Robinswood and White City) after overhearing a conversation while she was at the cemetery over Mother’s Day. “The couple in front of me were talking about problems that had been happening at Coney Hill,” she said.
“They said there had been problems, some graves had been swapped. I thought, well that can’t be mine, they can’t know about mine already. When I came back, I googled it and found other people’s graves had been mixed up.”
Cllr Chambers, who first raised concerns about other burial mix-ups at the last council meeting, says the public deserves to know the whole truth of the scale of problems at the cemetery.
“Following assurances from the city council that only two individuals had been mistakenly buried in the wrong graves—and that the matter had been resolved—I was subsequently contacted by several other residents reporting similar issues,” he said.
“One such case involves a lady named Sallyann, who purchased a grave plot eight years ago. She retains both the receipt and the deed for this plot, which is adjacent to her parents’ graves.
“It was her wish to be laid to rest beside them. However, during a recent visit to the cemetery to plant flowers, Sallyann discovered that the plot she had purchased had already been used for another burial.
“Disturbingly, the person now interred there shares the same first and middle names as her, but not the same surname.
“This case clearly contradicts the city council’s previous statement that only two burial errors had occurred.
“Sallyann’s situation represents a third confirmed case, and I am currently investigating several additional incidents—including a particularly distressing one involving a missing infant’s body.
“I am both shocked and deeply saddened by the council’s continued failings.
“Their repeated apologies are not sufficient in light of these serious and avoidable errors, which should never occur—let alone happen multiple times.
“One affected family must now endure the trauma of having their recently buried loved one exhumed and reburied due to this grave error—an unimaginable ordeal.
“Furthermore, I have been approached by another family whose baby brother’s remains are unaccounted for.
“In a similar case, the remains of twin infants cannot be located, and the council has yet to provide answers. My investigations are ongoing.
“The city council has already failed in its duty to disclose the full extent of these burial errors, as shown by their omission of Sallyann’s case. The public deserves the truth—and accountability.”
Council chiefs have apologised and say their thoughts are with the families of those affected. The council says that at no point were families and friends of the deceased present at the wrong burial.
Those buried have been placed in the wrong location within the cemetery, rather than the wrong grave. They say they are in talks with both families and are working towards a resolution.
“During members’ questions at the council meeting on March 27, 2025 it was requested that an investigation be carried out into incorrect burials at the cemetery,” a spokesperson said.
“The council is aware of two graves in recent years that have been placed in the wrong location within the cemetery grounds.
“We have followed all processes and procedures to move those graves to the correct locations in the cemetery and have been working sensitively with the families involved to resolve these.
“In one of these instances the council became aware of the incorrect location following correspondence from a concerned member of the public that they had previously purchased a plot at the cemetery in 2018, as it was next to her parents.
“Unfortunately, this did not show up on searches when allocating a grave to a different family’s deceased relative. We are in correspondence with both families and are working towards a resolution for all families involved.
“We apologise to the family and friends of the bereaved and those affected, and we would like to reassure the public that we have worked with and supported the families throughout this process.
“Our thoughts and feelings remain with the family and friends of the deceased.”
Gloucester City Councillor Alastair Chambers is standing in the upcoming County Council elections on May 1.
Other candidates for the Coney Hill and Matson division include Kazol Ahmed (Socialist Labour Party), Michael Carl Bones (Reform UK), Jen Cole (Labour Party), James Collett (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition), Daniel Courtney (Liberal Democrat), Ela Kubaszczyk (The Conservative Party).