700-body mortuary gets go ahead in York amid 'decomposition' fears
The unit in Nether Poppleton's Business Park which is set to be converted into a Pure Cremation mortuary (Image: Google Street View)
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PLANS for a mortuary housing up to 700 bodies in York have been approved.
Pure Cremation's application is set to see a former mobile network switching centre in Nether Poppleton's Business Park converted to house its main facility for the North East.
The company said the mortuary would operate all hours to serve the needs of people who need their loved one's remains collecting without delay.
But objectors said it would see bodies kept in an undignified, industrial facility and raised fears over how they would be handled while they decompose.
City of York Council planning officers ruled the effects on nearby homes, businesses and roads would not be harmful.
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The decision comes after plans for the facility were lodged in July.
It is set to see Unit 1 Hudson Court, in the business park's Great North Way, converted with the addition of six cooling units so bodies can be stored there.
The mortuary, which would operate all day, every day, would take bodies collected from residences, care homes and hospices for storage before they are sent for cremation.
Bodies would arrive in private ambulances in body bags and be checked on arrival before being placed in coffins.
Racks five coffins high would store them for three to four days before they are transported on to the company's crematoriums in Hampshire or elsewhere or to third party facilities.
Up to 35 staff would work at the site which would be closed to the public and monitored by CCTV.
Six objections were lodged against the application, including from Liberal Democrat Rural West York's Cllr Anne Hook and local funeral directors.
Cllr Hook said she feared the facility could put other firms off moving to the business park.
Conservative Cllr Martin Rowley, of Rowley & Sons funeral directors (Image: Martin Rowley)
Conservative councillor and funeral director Martin Rowley said he feared the up to 20 staff on site at a time would struggle to provide the specialist care people's remains required.
Others said it could have a detrimental impact on the local funeral industry which would knock on into other trades such as caterers, stone masons and florists.
A council summary of the objections stated: "It is inappropriate for bodies to be stored on mass at an industrial facility with 700 deceased which entails all forms of risks, both for deceased identification, levels of care and health and safety in relation to decomposition."
Pure Cremation stated the facility would be screened from the nearest homes 140m away and noise and traffic linked to it would be negligible.
O'Neill Associates, acting on behalf of the company, stated: "The level of employment is unlikely to have any adverse impact on the surrounding highway network.
"Apart from vehicles entering and leaving the site all activities, including the transfer of the deceased, occur within the building, the only noise will be from external cooling units.
"Pure Cremation occupy a similar premises on a business park in Knutsford, Cheshire, no complaints or adverse impact is reported from that site."
Council planning officers stated objectors raised concerns about the lack of regulation of the funeral which Pure Cremation had campaigned to strengthen.
They added the issue of regulation lay outside of their remit when it came to deciding on planning applications.