Stage Two the new cemetery site at Mercury Bay will start in November, says the Thames-Coromandel District Council.

The new cemetery site will be situated on 5.08 hectare of farmland located on State Highway 25 between Whitianga and Tairua which council purchased in 2012.

The budget for Stage Two is $487,000 and will be completed by April 2017.

Mercury Bay area manager Allan Tiplady says this latest phase will involve constructing the main access road, a circular car park, an entranceway and berms for a section of up some burial plots.

'The new cemetery won't be up and running within the next 12 months, but we need to have it prepared as the exiting Ferry Landing cemetery will be reaching capacity for burial sites in the next few years.”

Currently there is an average of about nine burials a year within Mercury Bay.

The first stage of the new cemetery site was completed in 2015 and involved constructing an intersection from the state highway to allow vehicles to turn safely into the new cemetery site, plus landscaping along the road border.

'For Stage Two we'll start by building the new internal road through the cemetery, which will have space for buses and regular cars. We'll then work on road access to the first site where there will be space for some burial plots and the circular car park, which will have space for up to 19 vehicles.”

'After that we'll turn to the main entrance gateway to the cemetery.”

Discussions are also underway with local iwi Ngāti Hei about naming the new cemetery site, in consultation with the Mercury Bay Community Board and other stakeholders.

Pre-sales of burial spots at the new cemetery site are not being taken right now.

The new cemetery site is also part of council's World War One Memorial Forest project which marks New Zealand soldiers who died during the Great War with the planting of a native tree.

In total there are eight Memorial Forest sites which pay tribute to the New Zealand soldiers who fell in a particular battle or came from a particular Coromandel town who were killed in WW1.

An area of the new Mercury Bay cemetery site will commemorate the Battle of Passchendaele, where eventually more than 2000 trees will be planted on site.

On ANZAC Day 2015 a sign was also unveiled at the new cemetery site, to honour the 35 men from Mercury Bay who gave their lives in the war.

For more information about the new Mercury Bay Cemetery visit the Thames–Coromandel District Council website at: www.tcdc.govt.nz/mbcemeter