York 700-body mortuary defended by Pure Cremation applicants

O’Neill Associates, acting on behalf of Pure Cremation, said the proposed site of the mortuary in Nether Poppleton’s York Business Park was screened from the nearest homes around 140m away.

The applicant’s agent added the facility would cause negligible levels of traffic and noise issues and the scale of the building would remain unchanged.

It follows a backlash to the proposed conversion of a former mobile network switching centre, in the business park’s Great North Way, into Pure Cremation’s main mortuary for the North East.

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Plans lodged in June propose installing six cooling units on the outside of Unit 1, Hudson Court as part of works to allow bodies to be stored there.

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 collected from residences, care homes and hospices 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.

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

Cllr Anne Hook, Rural West York’s Liberal Democrat ward councillor, has also called for the application to go before the council’s Planning Committee for a decision.

The applicant’s agent stated the call for a vote amid concerns over residential amenity, highways, noise, traffic, over-development and impact on neighbouring businesses did not stand up to scrutiny.

Pure Cremation has defended its plans for a mortuary storing up to 700 bodies in York (Image: Unsplash)

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.

“The site now has well-established landscaping providing screening to surrounding business units.

“Apart from vehicles entering and leaving the site all activities, including the transfer of the deceased, occur within the building, the only noise will be 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.”

Cllr Hook said in her request to call the application in that the facility could put other businesses off moving to the business park.

Other objectors said the proposed mortuary was appalling, horrific and undignified and likened it to a mass storage facility, production line and factory.

They also claimed it could negatively affect the local bereavement sector and cause traffic problems due to round-the-clock deliveries.