Future of Poole Crematorium to be decided at March meetings

The site at Gravel Hill has not had working cremators since April 2020.

In the past three years it has operated as a ceremonial and memorial location, with bodies transported to Bournemouth Crematorium for cremation after funeral services.

In September, senior councillors were set to be asked to approve the process for the site to formally change its status to a ceremonial only venue.

However, at a cabinet meeting then leader Cllr Drew Mellor made an out of the blue proposal in the face of criticism from residents, faith groups, funeral directors and opposition members.

His cabinet colleagues approved his recommendation requesting a report detailing options for replacing the cremators, with the aim of them being installed within 18 months.

This report has now been prepared and will be discussed at a scrutiny meeting on March 1 before going to cabinet for a decision on March 8.

Poole Crematorium (Image: BCP Council)

The paper outlines four options without selecting a preferred route to go down (capital budget required for each option):

• To continue to promote and market as a ceremonial venue only, conveying to Bournemouth for cremation (£120,000)
• Reinstate now as a crematorium with two gas cremators (£2,153,550)
• Reinstate now as a crematorium with two electric cremators (£3,285,000)
• Commit to bringing forward the reinstatement of electric cremators at Poole Crematorium, subject to a review of new technology and emerging green technologies being made available to the UK market in summer 2024 (£2,742,720)

The options follow a feasibility report by industry specialists CDS Limited.

A public petition calling for new cremators to be installed has now been signed by more than 3,300 people.

The cabinet report, authored by several senior officers, says: “Whilst Poole as a ceremonial-only venue continues to remain a popular choice of venue, we are aware of a large number of families that have been deterred [from] booking Poole by the fact that their loved one is not cremated onsite and instead is conveyed to another site for their cremation.

“For some, this can cause further upset and may affect how that family move forward with their grief in order to regain some sense of wellbeing.

“The online petition demonstrates strongly the community’s support for having new cremators installed at Poole.

“As well as providing spiritual benefits to the bereaved, operationally there are many benefits such as spreading the resilience across the two sites and also providing opportunities longer term to expand the bereavement business model in response to the changing demands of the industry.”

Cabinet members are being asked to recommend investment being built into the future capital programme for cremators to meet the needs of the community.

Councillors are also asked to note the downturn in overall cremations undertaken by the council’s bereavement care services since a new crematorium opening in New Milton and ongoing emergence of national direct cremation providers.