Issue details

The Crematorium building at Haycombe needs some expansion to allow us to continue to manage the numbers of deceased efficiently and reverently at peak times, to ensure business continuity. It has become standard good working practice for modern crematoria to provide a sanitary, temperature controlled reverent space to hold deceased in coffins, following the funeral service, whilst awaiting cremation, which is part of the plan to improve Haycombe.

Temporary resting facilities were created outside the Top Chapel in 2020, in response to the Covid pandemic. Permanent additional cold-room space on the lower floor of the crematorium building is required to build resilience and enable a more effective service to be offered to our communities. The new cold-room will allow staff to triage more effectively the cremation throughput at times of higher demand and also will give contingency should we ever find ourselves in a pandemic situation again.

This will enable more local people in B&NES to hold cremations at Haycombe, (instead of ones in other areas), which also means bereaved families and many mourners will have shorter distances to travel in cars. Cremations can be held sooner after the bereavement which some families will welcome. It will also enable memorials to be placed in the grounds at Haycombe as the cremation location, clearly a much more local and closer place for bereaved families to visit. We will also be able to facilitate more "simple" funerals with direct cremations which are becoming more popular.

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