A funeral director is calling on a Northern Ireland council to “abolish” what he says are “shocking” burial costs.
And Dunmurry undertaker, David Capper, has hit out at ‘astronomical’ fees grieving families are facing if council boundary changes have shifted them from Lisburn to Belfast meaning they must pay ‘non-resident’ burial costs.
The former president of the British Institute of Funeral Directors (BIFD) was speaking as Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council (LCCC) has seen general burial costs rise on average 10% across the council’s cemeteries.
Read more: Lisburn and Castlereagh Council cemetery digitalisation plans slowed by ageing documents.
But the charge for non-resident burials at the weekend and public holidays has “astronomically shot up” from £255 to £1,000 from the start of April 2023.
Mr Capper said: “You will have families who would have bought plots in the previous council boundary who are now being slapped with a massive hike to have their graves open.
“There will be people who want to be buried alongside their husband or wife who passed away some years ago, but will now be treated as a non-resident of the super council area and facing new weekend and public holiday charges.
“The other shocking cost is for the duplication of deed papers, which has gone from £60 to £460 for a non-resident, which is just madness for a piece of paper. We have to tell families about those costs, but no funeral directors were even consulted by the council.”
The boundary changes for Northern Ireland councils took place in 2015, with the amount of local authorities decreasing from 26 to 11.
The result was that some areas were moved into a new council authority, causing some people to become non-resident with regard to the cemetery they have family members buried at.
Mr Capper added: “What I would normally say to people about residency is, who empties your bin? Then we know if they are a resident or non-resident, which has changed since the new council structures were made.
“We are in Dunmurry, which use to be in Lisburn council, but now we are in Belfast, so you are now seeing families effectively being considered as being from a different council area than loved ones who passed some years ago.
“In some situations I am left advising families to look at other cemeteries, simply because of the price. I want the council to abolish these new charges, which have shot up astronomically almost overnight.
“In years gone by, families would have been able to buy a plot in the old council with a date on the deeds of purchase, but they will still have to pay the new non-resident prices if the now live in the new council boundary.”
The Local Democracy Service understands that the higher weekend and public holiday charges are in part to pay for council staff overtime wages.
It is also understood that another reason for the price hike is due to the LCCC area running out of grave spaces, though the council decision on costs was taken behind closed doors in confidential session away from the press and the public eye.
In recent times hedge rows were removed from Blaris cemetery to gain new spaces which, according to Mr Capper, are already running out.
The former BIFD president has now called for a bye-law to be removed from Belfast city council to allow new crematoriums to be built across Northern Ireland, in order to take the burden from Roselawn crematory and high costs away from bereaved families.
“You are seeing many families making the decision for a cremation as burial costs are rising so much. We do not charge for remains to rest at our funeral home as they wait in a queue to be cremated, which at the moment can be up to 10-12 days.
“The way forward as a possible solution to rising cemetery costs may be to allow more crematoriums in Northern Ireland, which will require Belfast City Council to lift any bye laws that it still has to permit new facilities.”
In response to the new costs, a LCCC spokesperson said: “Following the formation of Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council in 2015, it was recognised that a number of former LCCC ratepayers now resided in the Belfast City Council (BCC) area, as a result of the boundary changes.
“In keeping with the transition period that was adopted for household rates, as a good will gesture it implemented a similar process for grave charges.
“This scheme operated for three years and finished in 2018. From 2019, LCCC has offered two pricing structures, one for ratepayers in the council area and one for non-LCCC ratepayers. Burial costs have increased in line with council costs.”
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