£2.5 million cremation upgrade plan approved in North Yorkshire town
A multimillion-pound project to replace two cremators in North Yorkshire has been given the green light.
A £2.5 million investment to upgrade the cremators at Woodlands Crematorium in Scarborough will go ahead after council bosses approved the project at a meeting on Tuesday (Aug 4).
The two current gas cremators, which last for around 20-years, were installed in 2004 and need replacing at the crematorium, which was constructed in 1961 and has provided a vital service to the local community for more than six decades.
Coun Richard Foster, executive member for managing the environment, said: “They need to be upgraded and replaced, and we’ve looked at various ways of replacing them, including how we could do things differently, but the modern gas burners are greatly energy efficient, and they’re also very clean and environmentally friendly.”
North Yorkshire Council makes an estimated net surplus of £800,000 a year from running the crematorium, according to a report published by the authority last month.
Over the past three financial years, the authority recorded income of £3.041 million from cremation fees at the site, which is located near Scarborough Hospital. The income was generated from 1,000 to 1,100 cremations per year.
The cost of maintaining and operating the cremators is approximately £200,000 per year, which includes servicing and repairs, staff costs, and utility bills.
Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting at County Hall in Northallerton, Coun Foster told colleagues: “We do take the cost factor into account because we’re in charge of our cremation services, so we do benchmark against other cremation services in the area so that we remain competitive.”
He added: “This really is something we need to do.
“The way it’ll work is we’ll close one of the cremators while the other one remains in operation so people can continue to say goodbye to their loved ones in the local area.”
Coun Peter Wilkinson said: “It makes sense commercially, and I want to support his report and the recommendation.”
The council has said that its upgrade of the site could help it increase income by allowing it to accommodate larger coffins.
The existing cremators are unable to cope with larger coffins due to dimension restrictions, and by installing new cremators, the authority said it could “carry out more cremations per year, potentially providing additional cremation income of approximately £9,000”.
The costs for cremations at Woodlands Crematorium range from free of charge to more than £1,000.
A report said that over the last three financial years, annual servicing and call-out maintenance costs for the cremators have cost more than £150,000.
One of the reasons for replacing the cremators is “because of the financial risk of increased maintenance call-out charges and the growing difficulty in sourcing replacement parts for machinery that is now over 20 years old”.
A report stated that “the practical impact of this is that due to the growing lead-in time for repairs, the council runs the risk of needing to close the crematorium whilst it implements a back-up plan involving a mobile gas cremator, so whilst the cremators are currently still operational, their age is now a major risk that the service is having to manage.”
Councillors voted unanimously to approve the scheme at the executive committee meeting on August 4.