Hyndburn weekend burial service approved by councillors

The plans would allow short notice burials at the borough’s cemeteries, particularly for Muslim religious requirements, and offer families more opportunity for funeral services and burials locally.

They will start at Accrington Cemetery in Burnley Road in the autumn before being extended to Dill Hall Cemetery, Church and Clayton-le-Moors Cemetery and Rishton and Great Harwood Cemetery.

The move follows requests for weekend burials in Hyndburn for several years with many families choosing to use the weekend service available in Blackburn with Darwen borough.

They will be undertaken by a contractor on behalf of the council.

For short notice burials customers will be able to ring an on call number between 8am and 11am on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays (excluding Christmas day and New Year’s day) to book a burial for that afternoon.

Cllr Steven Smithson, Deputy Leader of Hyndburn Council, said: “I know this is something residents have wanted for our borough for a long time and they have contacted the council, myself and our MP Sara Britcliffe about offering a weekend burial service.

“I am incredibly proud to have been able to move these plans forward after several months of working alongside our cemetery officers and local ward councillors, Cllrs Sajid Mahmood and Mohammed Younis.

“The majority of coffin burials are undertaken during weekday usual working hours.

“As staff are not contracted to routinely work weekends any burials on Saturdays or Sundays are dependent on overtime availability and cannot always be facilitated.

“In some religions (e.g. Islam and Judaism) there is a religious requirement that people are buried as soon as possible after the bereavement.

“This often means families turn to neighbouring local authorities for burial services to be held at weekends or on bank holidays.

“I would like to thank the local community and officers for making these plans possible.

“It will make a real difference to so many families and I anticipate we would be able to get this new service in place by Autumn this year.”

Cllr Noordad Aziz, Labour’s spokesman for Cemeteries and Crematoria:”After two years of hard work, it is fantastic that the council has reached a point where it can now provide weekend burials. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who contributed to making this possible, particularly the Hyndburn Weekend Burial Committee and other volunteer groups.”