GRAVESTONES will be temporarily moved from a cemetery by a developer while bones are exhumed, if approval is granted.

Jaydem Homes has already begun work on the site next to the former Pokesdown United Reformed Church at the junction of Southbourne Road and Stourvale Road, and has removed part of the Grade II listed boundary wall to allow access.

The church itself, which closed in 2001, has already been converted into housing. It was built as a home for the Pokesdown Congregational Church in 1858.

The firm is seeking planning permission to relocate the memorial stones and to reinstate the boundary wall.

Its planning statement says it has been granted a licence by the Ministry of Justice to carry out the exhumation, but it was unaware planning authority consent was required for the other aspects of the work.

"Following a grant of planning permission, works shall continue on site for a duration of approximately two weeks," the statement says.

"The ground where excavations take place will be reinstated to its original form having no impact at all on the setting of the adjacent church.

"The gravestones can be laid back against the bank when formed, again this is a temporary relocation and will have no effect on the setting of the church."

The firm says a "professional grave digging company" will carry out the exhumation, and the headstones will be stored in purpose-built crates until the work is complete.

It is also seeking consent for the wooden hoarding already erected at the site.

It is the second bid to remove bones from the site in two years.

Back in June 2016 developer PLP announced it had engaged Tapper Funeral Service to carry out the work, due to start in August. Then, remains were due to be reinterred in a memorial garden at the Woodland Burial Ground, which is managed by Tapper.

The memorial stones are thought to have been moved around the site by workmen employed to mow the grass over several years. No known list exists of those interred at the site.