Company defends mortuary plan at business park

A company has defended its plans for a mortuary that would store up to 700 bodies in a village near York.

The proposed facility at York Business Park in Nether Poppleton would be converted from a former mobile network switching centre..

O'Neill Associates, acting on behalf of Pure Cremation, said the facility would cause negligible levels of traffic and noise issues and the scale of the building would remain unchanged.

However, objectors have branded the proposed mortuary "appalling" and "undignified", likening it to a "production line" and "mass storage facility".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the site would be Pure Cremation's main mortuary for the north-east of England.

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.

Works would include the addition of six cooling units so bodies can be stored there.

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.

Four objections have so far been lodged, including from local funeral directors, claiming bodies would be stored in an undignified and industrial facility.

They argued it would "harm the local funeral economy" in York, which they said was already "one of the best when it comes to bereavement care".

On 20 July, Anne Hook, Rural West York's Liberal Democrat ward councillor, called for the application to go before City of York Council's planning committee for a decision.

She believed the proposed mortuary could put off other businesses moving to the business park.

Writing a letter in response on 12 August, the applicant's agent stated calls for a vote over residential amenity, highways, noise, traffic, over-development and impact on neighbouring businesses did not stand up to scrutiny.

O'Neill Associates said: "The proposal will employ 35 people, working in shifts over a 24-hour period, with the result that only 20 employees will be on site at any given time.

"The level of employment is unlikely to have any adverse impact on the surrounding highway network."

They added screening was already provided to surrounding business units and the only noise, apart from vehicle movement, would come 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," they added.

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