Private partner to help fund crematorium

WARRINGTON Borough Council is to seek a private sector partner to help bring the ageing Walton Lea Crematorium up to date.
It will cost £1 million to enable the crematorium to meet new emissions regulations being introduced by the Government and failure to do so would mean the current cremators would have to be shut down and the council would be unable to continue to provide a cremation service.
The private sector partner will provide funding to meet emissions regulations while the council will pay for essential improvements to the buildings from reserve funds.
But the work is likely to add about £100 to the cost of a cremation.
The three existing cremators at Walton Lea are nearing the end of their operation lives and the Government has decided 50 per cent of all cremations must comply with new, strict emission regulations by the end of 2012. Three years later, all cremations must meet the new requirements.
Council officers have now been authorised to seek tenders from a private sector partner
Currently, Walton Lea deals with about 2,000 cremations a year. But because the three cremators are all standard size, funerals involving larger coffins have to be transferred to a crematorium in Greater Manchester.
It would be intended to install one larger cremator at Walton Lea, with two standard size facilities and this would result in a larger number of cremations at Warrington.
Officers say Warrington would be the first authority in the area to meet the new environmental standards and as such there would be an opportunity to approach neighbouring authorities with a view to operating a shared service.
Only a small number of private companies in the UK are able to meet the requirements of the new legislation, but there are a considerable number of firms with the necessary expertise in Europe.