Agenda item

The Leader wished to pay tribute to Cliff Ride, a former Director of Environment at the council, who recently passed away.

The Leader informed Members that Ian Bickerton had resigned as a councillor. He wished to put on record his thanks to his contributions to the Council whilst he was a Member.

The Leader reminded Members that Highways England had launched its consultation on the options for the A417 until 29 March. A consultation event was taking place at St Andrews Church on 24 February between 11am and 6pm.

The Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment was then invited to make a statement on the crematorium. He explained that on 9 February a Health and Safety review was undertaken at the crematorium and due to the cremators operating under positive pressure at times and subsequently emitting smoke into the crematory area the decision was taken to stop cremating from Monday 12 February. The welfare of staff was paramount in taking this last resort decision. Emergency meetings would be held with service engineers and inspections done as a matter of urgency to determine the way forward in order to become fully operational as quickly as possible. Until then all future bookings had been cancelled and with the funeral directors help all currently booked cremations would be moved to alternate crematoriums. He was aware the distress this would cause to families involved and stressed that if he had any other option he would be taking it.

The Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment went on to say that the service continuity plan was put into operation straight away and last Tuesday morning, all of the five coffins from Monday’s services were transported to Newport, where they were cremated at Westerleigh’s new crematorium. He wished to reassure everyone that the process would be as dignified as to be expected. The coffin would leave Cheltenham Crematorium via the catafalque, through the chapel, and out of the main doors, where it would be placed into private ambulance ready for transportation. Upon arrival at Newport, the coffins would be carried into the chapel, placed on the catafalque where the curtains would be closed and the coffin taken into the crematory or storage area waiting for cremation. The ashes from the previous day’s cremations would be ready to collect and return to Cheltenham. He advised of a maximum time frame of 72 hours. Cremated remains would be available for collection from Cheltenham Crematorium in the usual manner once ready.

Inspection works and repairs had taken place on both cremators and contractors were on site. A part was awaited from abroad so it was likely that the service would be non operational for next week.

He wished to put on record his thanks to staff who had taken the decision hard. He was confident however that  it was the right decision. All Members had received updates via press releases at the same time as those affected i.e. members of the public and funeral directors. He confirmed that the events had not affected the crematorium project which remained on track.

Finally, he said that on a personal level he was acutely aware of the impact on families and wished to apologise to them. He assured them that the council was working as hard as it could to offer the full cremation service again from the week commencing 5 March.