The Phoenix Awards, the cemetery design awards scheme last seen when MAB was the Memorial Advisory Bureau and headed by Sam Weller, are back.

When the MAB executive decided not to renew Weller\'s contract as their PR consultant at the end of 1994, Sam Weller turned to other ventures, including the Association of Burial Authorities (ABA), which he had formed. It is now under the auspices of the ABA that the Phoenix Awards are returning.

It had originally been planned to present the revived Phoenix Awards at a new death care exhibition, Caring for the Deceased, planned for the NEC in Birmingham 4-6 April. But the show clashed with the second Funeral Services Exhibition (FSE) at Stoneleigh Park, near Coventry, and in the end the industry decided to back FSE.

The ABA was also staging a conference as part of the Caring for the Deceased exhibition. This will go ahead, now at the Brompton Cemetery Chapel in London, 4-5 April. It is during the conference, called Grounds for Burial, that the Phoenix Awards will be presented. Top prize will be £1,000 and a trophy sponsored by memorial insurers Stoneguard.

Meanwhile, MAB, which now stands for the Memorial Awareness Board, launched a new brochure at the joint conference (IBCA/CBA/FBCA) in September promoting the use of kerbsets in cemeteries.