News in brief from council meeting

Grieving families have been offered reassurance about the future of Sunderand’s crematorium.

City leaders took questions on the Chester Road facility’s planned £7.5million overhaul at the meeting of Sunderland City Council on Wednesday, as well as on a host of other issues.

Concerns had been raised that the proposals could see an ‘appalling act of desecration’ at the site’s garden of remembrance, which it was feared could be flattened to extend car parking space.

Coun Debra Waller, deputy cabinet member for environment and transport, told the council chamber there were ‘no plans to build a car park on the garden of remembrance’.

Other highlights from the meeting at Sunderland Civic centre included: • Cuts to councillor allowances agreed which are expected to save about £140,000 a year • Calls from opposition leaders for Coun Louise Farthing, cabinet member for children’s services, to resign if there is no improvement at the city’s children’s services department in the next six months. • Assurances the council will not be hit in the pocket by interest rate hikes at the Public Works Loan Board • Bosses revealed 118 homes in the city reported flooding in July and August • The council’s planning website, where any applications to build can be submitted or viewed, suffered five ‘unplanned outages’ between March 2018 and October (2019), as well as a further four ‘planned outages’.