Shropshire firm chosen to build new Remembrance Park in Shrewsbury

Shropshire Council has selected Shropshire firm Pave Aways Ltd as the preferred contractor for the construction of Shrewsbury’s new cemetery and Remembrance Park.

The contract for the Mytton Oak Remembrance Park was put out to tender in January 2013.

Pave Aways, who are based at Knockin, near Oswestry, have been selected following an evaluation of the bids submitted.

Further discussions will now take place between the council and Pave Aways before the contract is signed.

Construction work will then begin in late spring 2013 once work has been carried out to protect great crested newts at the site.

Dr Larry Wolfe,  Shropshire Council’s head of bereavement services, said:

“I’m delighted to announce Pave Aways as our preferred contractor and pleased that a Shropshire firm is set to carry out work on this important project. We received a number of excellent bids but, in our evaluation of these, Pave Aways emerged as the clear winner.

“We now look forward to finalising the details of the contract with them and to work starting on site in the next few weeks.”

Steven Owen, Managing Director of Pave Aways Limited, said:

“The new Remembrance Park will be an integral part of the Shrewsbury community throughout this century and into the next.  Pave Aways are honoured to be chosen as the preferred contractor and look forward to working alongside Shropshire Council to create a Park that will provide solace and reflection.

“As a local contractor over 50 per cent of our sub-contract works are placed with Shropshire companies and this project will enable this to continue.”

Mytton Oak Remembrance Park will enable Shropshire Council and its bereavement services contractor, The Co-operative, to continue to provide burial services to the people of Shropshire for the next 100 years, once Emstrey cemetery in Shrewsbury closes to new burials in around two years’ time.

It will also provide an opportunity for woodland burials, which are becoming more popular, and include areas for quiet reflection.

Planning permission for the site was granted in February 2013.

The choice of name for the new Remembrance Park recognises the location of the new Park just off Mytton Oak Road, which in turn took its name, in 1934, from the fact that land in the area once belonged to the Mytton family.

To recognise the origins of the Remembrance Park’s chosen name, Shropshire Council plans to plant at the site an oak tree which descends from the Shelton Oak – a tree which for more than 600 years stood close to the remembrance park site on the land once owned by the Mytton family – and from which the name Mytton Oak is thought to originate.

The plans for the site have been drawn up by Axis, the design consultants for the project.

It is estimated that developing the new site will cost £1.1million, and this sum is included within the council’s capital programme.