The petitioner, supported by her extended family, petitioned for the exhumation of the cremated remains of her mother from the churchyard where they had been buried since 1997. The remains were buried in a plot which had an uneven and narrow access path and with the passing of years the petitioner's mobility had failed such that she could no longer access the grave. The petitioner intended to re-inter the remains in the local cemetery, alongside her husband and his family, where access was easier. The chancellor considered the principles laid down by the Court of Arches in Re Blagdon Cemetery [2002] Fam 299. In refusing the faculty, the chancellor found that the principal reason for the petition after the lapse of some 18 years was the deterioration in the petitioner's mobility. She held that the advancing of years and consequential limitations of mobility could not amount to an exceptional reason; to decide otherwise could lead to a flood of similar applications and unacceptable inroads into the principle of the permanence of burial. [RA]
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