A Royal Borough councillor declared controversial proposals for a crematorium in Cookham ‘dead’ as plans were unanimously refused this week.

Elegy Crematorium Services, the company behind the plans, is seeking to convert a field in Long Lane into a crematorium.

The funeral company lodged an initial application in 2024, which was withdrawn in September last year.

A revised proposal was submitted again in December 2025.

At a Maidenhead development management committee meeting on Tuesday, the plans came before councillors, with planning officers recommending them for refusal.

Julian Sharp, the applicant’s agent, said: “Anyone who has suffered a bereavement knows that there is an urgent and growing need in the area for a new crematorium.”

Mr Sharp said time was spent finding the right location where there was a ‘proven need’ for a crematorium, with a site search carried out as part of the initial application.

He said there were no concerns from the council at the time around this, adding that these were only raised earlier this month during a meeting with the case officer for the plans.

Mr Sharp urged councillors to defer their decision and allow the applicant to explain why other areas are unsuitable for the crematorium.

“To not allow this would be unreasonable and place the council at a risk of award of costs at appeal,” he said.

But the proposals raised a string of objections from residents and community groups – 295 objections in total.

The site falls within a protected view depicted in Sir Stanley Spencer’s paintings and the plans would ‘fail to respect the locally important views and openness’, a planning officers’ report said.

Cookham Parish Councillor Richard Kellaway said: “People have pilgrimages to Cookham to look at all the sites where Stanley painted.”

Royal Borough Councillor Mandy Brar (Lib Dem, Bisham and Cookham), who is also a parish councillor, decided not to take part in the debate or vote and spoke as an objector instead.

She said Long Lane is a remote and rural landscape and a ‘narrow rural road’ which is not suited to the traffic generated by a crematorium.

Cllr Brar argued the location is greenbelt and would be an ‘inappropriate’ development.

A planning officers’ report, however, said the site falls within the grey belt – defined as previously developed or low-quality greenbelt land.

But at the Town Hall meeting, James Cross, the council’s major sites team leader, said: “Because you’ve got the [Cookham] Neighbourhood Plan that has got such strong protections over certain parts of the land, you really can’t do anything on reliance of the grey belt anyway.

“So, it becomes more an academic point which is why it hasn’t been included as a reason for refusal.”

The disquiet about the plans was clear among councillors sitting on the planning committee as well.

Cllr Gurch Singh (Lib Dem, St Mary’s) said when the plans initially came in he thought they looked ‘quite nice ’, but there is ‘a hell of a lot of objection here’.

“It’s the wrong location, wrong application, there is no need for it,” said Cllr Singh.

He argued that the application is ‘dead really’ and said: “Quite frankly I think we just have to call it a day with this one.”

Cllr Sian Martin (Lib Dem, Belmont) also voiced her concerns about there being no lighting on the road and questioned whether the pavement proposed would be wide enough.

The plans said there would be a maximum of four services per day from Monday to Friday. These would be organised between 10:30am and 3:30pm.

But Cllr Martin said this is for now and asked if there was anything that would restrict the applicant to this number in the ***ure.

Ultimately, councillors voted against the plans unanimously.