Plans For A New Crematorium To Serve Thurrock Submitted
After an extensive consultation process with local residents, an application has been submitted for a new crematorium to be built for families in Thurrock on land to the east of Orsett, to the west of the A128 Brentwood Road.
A public consultation carried out in the summer of 2022 showed "strong support" for a crematorium to be built in the Borough. Crematorium developer Elegy held an exhibition in March this year of its plans, which was attended by fifty local residents, who recognised that a new crematorium was needed for the area.
The district does not currently have a crematorium of its own. Currently bereaved families are served by Basildon (Pitsea) or South Essex (Upminster), with Brentwood and Chelmsford offering more remote choices. None of these crematoria are within an acceptable journey time for funeral parties from the main centres of Thurrock. A journey of over 30 minutes for a funeral cortege is considered too long on a difficult day for the bereaved.
Following feedback received during the exhibition and further consultations with residents over many months, the developer has responded by proposing extra landscaping to screen any views of the crematorium from the roads and nearby neighbours, as well as improving access with the addition of a cycle path.
John Brand, the managing director of LE Brand and Sons of Stanford-Le-Hope, has written in to Thurrock Council offering his “full support for the plan”, saying that a Thurrock crematorium was long overdue and praising “the pleasing look of the modern design” which “will blend into its quiet natural environment.”
Jeremy West leads West and Coe Funeral Directors, which has 24 branches throughout Essex and London. He said that “the provision of a new crematorium in Thurrock is desperately needed” and “would provide essential new capacity”. He said the plans “would greatly improve the welfare of the bereaved by offering a quieter local service able to meet today’s expectations.”
Richard Evans, Managing Director of Elegy, who has been a crematorium developer and operator for over 25 years, said:
“Residents are understandably cautious when any new development is proposed. That is why we have taken extra time to improve our proposals in light of residents’ comments, to make sure that our application meets the needs of the bereaved whilst limiting any impact on our neighbours.
It is time for bereaved families in Thurrock to have access to a convenient local crematorium, free from the long journeys and the stretched and, in some cases, tired facilities of existing crematoria.”
The new state-of-the-art facility will sit in its own discrete setting. Landscaping will include formal and informal footpaths, seating areas within woodland glades, tree planting, areas of species-rich wildflower meadow, a screening woodland backdrop on the southern and western sides of the site, and a sustainable drainage system which flows into carefully designed ponds.
The crematorium’s emissions will be Net Zero from the first year of operation. An additional estimated 55.4 Tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions will be saved every year by road users no longer having to travel to a crematorium further away.
Vehicular access, highway safety and active travel opportunities have all been explored and incorporated. The proposals include a new section of informal cycle path off Conways Road and a right run reserve lane on the A128 Brentwood Road which is monitored by average speed cameras at 50mph.
KEY POINTS
1. An extensive search has taken place to find a suitable location for a new crematorium facility. Unique restrictions apply to the siting of crematoria, most notably Section 5 of the Cremation Act 1902 which states: “No crematorium shall be constructed nearer to any dwelling house than 200 yards (182 metres) except with the consent, in writing, of the owner, lessee and occupier of such house, nor within 50 yards of any public highway.” The 200-yard rule effectively rules out urban areas and directs new crematoria to be located on sites like the one proposed.
2.The Orsett site has been selected due to its limited impact upon the relevant Green Belt purposes set out in National Planning Policy as well as its accessibility by local funeral operators.
3. Upminster (South Essex) crematorium was built 70 years ago and now operates two chapels alongside each other, allowing just 40 minutes between each funeral in one of them, resulting in an unpopular conveyor belt system of services.
4. Basildon crematorium was opened in Pitsea cemetery in 1998 but also needed a second chapel to be added in 2019 to cope with demand. Cremations have soared by 67% since and Basildon is now the second busiest crematorium in the country, holding 3,840 cremations in 2023.
5. The pressures on local crematoria will only grow over the next 20 years with the sustained rise in deaths, forecast by the ONS to be over 20%.
6. The new service is expected to look after approximately 1000 cremations a year, four per day on average.