A NEW garden of remembrance at a cemetery will offer an “oasis” to families and loved ones.

Oswestry Town Council has officially opened a garden of remembrance at the town cemetery.

Mayor of Oswestry, Cllr Sandy Best, officially opened the £70,000 garden.

She said: “It has taken a lot of consideration and an amount of commitment in terms of resources and time to create this new facility.

“When you enter the cemetery you can can actually see what the existing garden of remembrance is like, and you can see that it’s coming to the end of its term.

“A new space was needed, and those of us on the council were really keen to invest in something that was a little bit different and actually had an element of design to it.”

Cllr Best said the garden was built to a really good standard and that it would look stunning when the plants were fully grown.

She added: “Colleagues on the cemetery management group wanted to create what we call an organised oasis for family and loved ones.”

She thanked John Challinor for designing the garden and construction firm Jones Brothers for the “high quality build over what has been a very cold winter”.

The mayor also praised Nick Richards from funeral directors David Davies & Sons for his input into the project.

A new garden was needed for the interment of ashes and will serve Oswestry for at least the next 20 years.

The garden of remembrance has taken around four months to build. Members of the council and representatives from other parties involved in the project attended the official opening.

Cllr Paul Milner said that the new garden of remembrance was an “outstanding” facility.

He added: “It just shows you the town council’s commitment to the cemetery.

“Obviously we needed more room for interments, and now this has been completed and I think it’s a very high standard.

“We had to think about that because people will be laying to rest their loved ones here and wanted the best standards for their families and friends.”