‘Death is a part of life’ in suburbs
Two Christchurch funeral directors wanting to expand their businesses are facing fierce battles with neighbours. What is it about having a funeral home as a neighbour that people despise so much? Tina Law reports.
Death is challenging and the positioning of funeral homes is an easy thing for people to get flustered about, says Ruth McManus, an associate professor in sociology at Canterbury University.
McManus, who specialises in death and dying, says everybody tends to have a very strong experience of death, based on their own limited experience, rather than having a full appreciation of all the things going on.
‘‘It’s a very emotive subject.’’ Emotions have been running high in Fendalton’s Rochdale St and in Halswell, where two completely different funeral homes have gained planning approval.
Lamb and Hayward wants to build a 1222-square metre facility including a 270-seat chapel and a smaller 64-seat chapel with 181 car parks on the corner of Wigram and Halswell Junction Rds. It will hold up to 540 funerals a year, over six days a week.
Bell, Lamb and Trotter wants to use the ground floor of an existing 210sqm Fendalton home, owned by its managing director Andrew Bell, to operate ‘‘small and elegant’’ funeral services for up to 10 people, no more than once a fortnight.
Despite the differences, opposition to both proposals is fairly similar. Neighbours say the developments will increase traffic and congestion to an unacceptable level and they believe cultural concerns have been ignored. They also have issues with the new district planning rules that have allowed these developments to go ahead with no or limited public notification.
Both proposals were given a resource consent by commissioners in April. Halswell residents are still considering an appeal.
Rochdale was not publicly notified and was approved under the home occupation rules in the district plan, overturning the council planner’s decision. Bell says he lives at the address.
Residents, Christchurch city councillor Raf Manji and Ilam MP Gerry Brownlee have questioned the commissioner’s Rochdale decision. Residents are considering a judicial review, but want the council to pursue one. The council is considering its options.
McManus says it would be interesting to find out how many other people ran a business from their home in Fendalton and how many people opposed those from happening.
She questions where funeral homes should go instead and says those opposing the developments should ask themselves where they would like to farewell their loved ones.
‘‘Not out in the sticks, in an industrial wasteland that no-one can get to.
‘‘Death is part of life.’’ Death might be a part of life, but there is a certain sensitivity about having funeral services within a few metres of your home, Rochdale St resident David Nicholls says.
Nicholls, who represents 160 residents, says residents feel they will be constrained about what they can do on their own properties when a funeral is happening next door. Traffic and parking congestion was a major problem too.
‘‘Some people feel very strongly about that.’’
Residents have shown their disapproval by putting up large signs and holding protests.
Andrew Bell says he has made significant concessions and changes to his original thinking to mitigate any potential effects on neighbours. The number of services has been halved from 52 down to 26 a year and the hours have been limited to between 10am and 5pm. There will be four offstreet car parks at the house, no mortuary services will happen there and the signage will be limited to an A4 notice.
He says neighbours will not even notice when the house is being used for small funerals.
‘‘These conditions should give everyone the reassurance they need that this is a home-based business that you could argue is getting far more attention than if it were an after-school tutorial service.
‘‘We are a family business with family values and respect is at the heart of everything we do.’’
Despite these concessions, Nicholls says a Chinese woman had told him she would have to move away if the home became operational because she found it culturally impossible to cope with the idea of a funeral home next door.
Canterbury University anthropology lecturer Zhifang Song, who specialises in China and East Asia societies, backs up that view.
He says Chinese people like to keep a distance between the death and the living, especially strangers.
Not everyone holds the same view, but traditionally dead people are seen to have supernatural powers and those powers could be good or evil, he says.
‘‘This is why you should be very careful about the dead.’’
China does have funeral homes but they are situated away from residential homes, he says.
‘‘To put a funeral home close to a residential home? I do not think that is a good move.
‘‘People stay away from the dead, if possible.’’
Ajay Ahuja and Mayank Katira, who are of Indian descent, also have cultural concerns about the Halswell development they live opposite.
They told a hearing earlier this year they did not wish to be subjected to the constant reminders of death.
In a submission to the hearing, Katira said knowing a funeral was happening next door would make them feel sad and out of respect to the family and friends attending the funeral, they would not be able to do activities with their children including playing football, singing, dancing and socialising.
Having funerals taking place on a regular basis would directly impact their emotional wellbeing, the submission said. The presence of a funeral home would also mean relatives and friends would not visit their home.
Halswell Hornby Riccarton Community Board member Ross McFarlane, who has been advocating for the residents, says the council’s newly adopted multicultural strategy is supposed to embrace all cultures and give everyone a say in what goes on in their city.
He believes the district plan has failed those residents, because they purchased their homes knowing the green field across the road had been zoned residential.
‘‘I’m absolutely disappointed for the people that they have to spend a lot of money to go through a process to defend the rights they believed they had in the district plan.’’
McFarlane says there are many other more suitable greenfield sites in the southwest where a funeral home can become a keystone project and allow people to choose to live next door to it.
‘‘In this case they are wanting to impose on an existing residential area.’’
But Lamb and Hayward chief executive Stephen Parkyn says funeral homes have always been and should be located in residential areas.
‘‘I don’t think bereaved families want to attend services jammed between the panelbeater or some other commercial operation or smacked on the back of a shopping mall.’’
Parkyn believes the facility will become an asset to the community.
‘‘We can create what will be a landscaped oasis in the middle of a heavily developed residential area.’’
He also believes the majority of the community supports the development.
‘‘Is the community in general against us? I do not believe they are. I think people can see this will be a great facility for the southwest.’’
Parkyn says there is no denying there is a need for a funeral home in Christchurch’s southwest.
He presents a map of the city split into four showing the population, the number of rest homes and funeral homes in each section. There is just one funeral home in the southwest and it is on the boundary with the northwest.
Three new major rest home developments are planned and while the southwest is already home to 27 per cent (92,199) of the city’s population, it is growing.
‘‘If you live in the southwest of Christchurch we would say that it now needs and certainly will need into the future, quality funeral home facilities.’’
Parkyn says he understands some people feel uncomfortable living next to a funeral home, but the company has done everything it can to mitigate the impact of its funerals.
The company has halved the number of funerals to be held there and removed the 5.30pm funeral time to lessen the impact on traffic and headlight glare to surrounding residents. It also dropped Sunday funerals, but there will still be Saturday funerals, because there is a strong demand.
‘‘If in the end a person says that they are just uncomfortable with death or a funeral then the reality is they are happening every day all around us. There can be a funeral happening in a church at any time.’’
‘‘...this is a home-based business that you could argue is getting far more attention than if it were an after-school tutorial service.’’ Funeral director Andrew Bell