Le Foulon the wrong place for a crematorium, say funeral directors

If approved by the States, £3.63m. from the capital reserve fund will go towards building a new fit-for-purpose crematorium at Le Foulon later this year alongside the existing structure which was built in 2003. Another £250,000 is needed in seed funding.

Although a spokesperson for STSB said there were no plans to raise the cost of a cremation as a result of this project its proposed location has drawn criticism from some in the trade who believe access and parking could be better.

‘Parking is the main problem,’ said Jane Duquemin, managing director at Beckford’s Funeral Services.

‘As you can drive up at the moment, access is OK, but with the new build the elderly might not be able to be dropped off at the top,’ she said.

Funeral director Gary Vaudin said he believed the crematorium needs to be relocated entirely.

‘The cemetery has been historically poorly managed and was not financially viable from the outset.

‘I personally believe they need to relocate the crematorium in its entirety.

‘A crematorium has to be sited within a not particularly developed area so they are constrained, that said, the King Edward VII Hospital might have been an appropriate site,’ he said.

Property Services’ head of estates strategy, Mark Ogier, said:

‘Nearly 100 potential locations were considered and a detailed evaluation was carried out of 36.

‘That included the former King Edward VII Hospital site, and its proximity to a significant amount of housing was a key consideration there.

‘That detailed evaluation of options identified an extension to the current facilities at Le Foulon as the one which provided the best value for money.

It is estimated a new site would cost around £7m.

‘As part of the proposed works at the Foulon some extra parking would be created on site with the addition of formal disabled bays adjacent to the chapel to replace the current informal parking.’

The cost of each individual burial last year was £4,409 including a plot as opposed to £557 for a cremation alone.

The difference in cost may have contributed to the fact that 70% of people who died last year were cremated.

Mr Vaudin said that there is a perception cremation is a better option for the environment.

‘I’ve been in the funerals business for 32 years and in that time I’ve seen an increased uptake in cremation services.

‘I think there’s a perception of it being better for the environment which I think is misplaced.

‘Burial is quite a natural phenomenon,’ he said.