New funeral directors run by Coventry council will offer 'lower cost' services

[dutchman]

Public health funerals in the city were at their highest for almost a decade last year



"Lower cost" funeral services will be offered to Coventry residents under plans by the city council. The council will open and run a new funeral directors' at the old Coventry Communications Centre in Holbrooks after plans for a change of use got approval last week.

It comes amid a national rise in the cost of dying, while in Coventry the number of public health funerals is also on the rise. The council-owned building is next to a cemetery and was deemed an "adequate location" for funeral services in a planning statement.

As well as customer facing facilities the new funeral directors will have a mortuary - space to store dead bodies - plus a new garage for hearses. Around four to five staff are expected to be hired.

Councillor Patricia Hetherton, Cabinet Member for City Services said the council is close to opening the new service. She said: "I’m really pleased that we are so close to opening a funeral services arm.

"Our team already take fantastic care of the city’s cemeteries and crematoria and soon they will also provide a first rate but lower cost funeral service to local residents. The cost of living crisis means things are very tough for people – so if we can help in some small way and relieve some of the pressure on people then that is what we should do."

It comes after controversial plans to convert an office near Coventry station into a funeral parlour were halted by the council due to rising costs. The scheme was opposed by people living in a retirement home overlooking the office, the Coventry Telegraph reported at the time.

One resident dubbed plans "insensitive" and another said the "delicate location" didn't make sense, according to the paper. Plans were withdrawn in February this year and the new scheme submitted in June.

The council currently arranges public health funerals for people who don't have any next of kin, or whose relatives can't afford to pay for a service. This is required by law and can take the form of burials or cremations.

In 2022 the number of these kinds of funerals held in Coventry was at its highest for at least nine years, at 57, according to a Freedom of Information Request. The cost to the council from the funerals was also double what it was in 2013, at £86,483, though around half of this value was recouped from the estates of the deceased.

[dutchman]

I fails to see how this will cost ratepayers any less than hiring an existing funeral directors'?

I suppose its sheer coincidence that one of them is owned by a Tory opposition councillor?