(Image: Charley Atkins/SWNS)
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A York funeral director has hit out at plans to create an “industrial scale” mortuary being given the go ahead.
Martin Rowley, of Rowley & Sons Family Funeral Services in Lawrence Street, said he was “disappointed” by the council approving the proposals to create the new facility at York Business Park in Nether Poppleton.
Pure Cremations, the company behind the plans, said the up to 700 bodies stored at the facility would be cared for in a "dignified way in the discreet facility".
Where the new mortuary catering for up to 700 bodies would be in York Business Park in Nether Poppleton (Image: Charley Atkins/SWNS)
City of York Council planning officers ruled the effects of the new facility, in a former mobile network switching centre, would not be harmful on nearby homes, businesses and roads.
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.
Martin Rowley, Councillor and funeral director, who has lodged objections towards Pure Cremation's plans (Image: Charley Atkins/SWNS)
Mr Rowley, who is also a Conservative councillor and a former Lord Mayor of York, said the scale of the mortuary, which would become Pure Cremations’ main facility for the North East, meant it would provide “impersonal” care.
He also questioned whether the 25 or so staff employed at the facility would be able to offer adequate care to the deceased.
"This facility just endorses the impersonal, transactional, profit driven nature of the Pure Cremations operation,” he said.
"I'm not questioning their service, rather the industrial scale of the facility.
“How can so few staff realistically look after so many bodies and ensure they are kept in good condition?
"If the council really cared about people and transparency, they would have brought this planning application to the Planning Committee for determination.”
Where the new mortuary catering for up to 700 bodies would be in York Business Park in Nether Poppleton (Image: Charley Atkins/SWNS)
Liberal Democrat councillor Anne Hook also raised concerns, suggesting the 37,673 sq feet facility, which sits next to a martial arts gym, independent nail salons and dog groomers, would affect businesses on the industrial estate.
Other residents shared their frustration online with one saying the mortuary looks like a "horror movie" and another dubbing it a “human conveyor belt”.
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Pure Cremation has 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, said: "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."