Residents ask council to drop park from crematorium sites list

RESIDENTS WILL plead with council bosses to drop one of their parks from a list of potential sites for a new crematorium.

More than 2,330 people have now signed a petition calling for Bradford Council to remove Littlemoor Park in Queensbury from a list of sites for a new crematorium, and the petition is likely to be heard at a meeting of Bradford Council on Tuesday.

Council bosses provided Shipley residents with a late Christmas present last week by dropping Northcliffe Park from a list of crematoria sites in the North of the district.

Now those who have protested Littlemoor’s inclusion, including the Friends of Littlemoor Park, have hopes that their park may too be dropped from the plans.

Last year, an announcement by Bradford Council that the two public parks were on a list of sites considered to replace two of the district’s ageing crematoria led to a huge backlash from the Shipley and Queensbury communities.

The Council’s Bereavement strategy calls for Nab Wood and Scholemoor crematoria, described as working far beyond their life span, to be shut and replaced.

Because new crematoria take up more space, due to required mercury abatement equipment, those existing sites would not be big enough for the new facilities.

The Council listed Littlemoor Park and a private plot of land, which they have not yet identified, as a possible replacement for Scholemoor and Northcliffe Park and two private sites as possible replacement sites for Nab Wood.

On Friday, Bradford Council announced it was likely to drop Northcliffe from the list, with a final decision being made by the Council’s Executive on Tuesday.

Carolyn Bowe, from the Friends of Littlemoor Park, said: “At one recent meeting a councillor said the petition for Northcliffe Park was the biggest petition to had gone before the council, and we have got even more names.”