Labour leader slams ‘cruel’ rise in funeral fees
BARGE FURNITURE TARGETED
THE leader of the opposition on North East Lincolnshire Council has called the planned rise in funeral fees “cruel and unacceptable”. The fees, which are recommended to be approved at the Environment and Transport meeting, will add £129,000 to the council’s budget each year.
The price of a chapel and cremation service will rise by £52 from £705 to £757; a direct cremation with no service will increase by £38 from £507 to £545, and an interment fee will be hiked up by £63 from £765 to £822.
Each individual increase on services adds up to £683.90 on top of the original money that the council would charge for its services. However, leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Matthew Patrick, will be calling in this decision - saying it is “morally indefensible.”
He said: “It is one of the reasons why we opposed the budget. It’s one of the stealth charges they’ve tried to slip in and it’s cruel and unacceptable.
“It’s morally indefensible. Looking into it, a lot of people will have to use more than one of the services listed, meaning that the act of burying or cremating your loved one becomes a lot more expensive for grieving families. A lot of these increases are way higher than the rate of inflation, which is one of the reasons they’re giving to introducing it.
“The main one which will affect almost everyone, is the increase to a chapel and cremation service, which is six to seven times higher than the rate of inflation, and will cost families £52 extra on to of the regular price.”
Cllr Patrick said he will be calling in the decision, to bring it before a council scrutiny panel. He said: “We are not even out of the pandemic yet, people are still losing their lives due to Covid-19, and a lot of families are on reduced incomes or have lost their jobs altogether.
“Losing a loved one is hard enough right now, but increasing charges and making people get further into debt just to bury their loved ones is heartless. We need to put a stop to these increases and stop loved ones having to pay out more money just to pay respects to the ones they’ve lost.”
Liberal Democrat councillor, Stephen Beasant, has also criticised the council for the increase in fees.
He said: “I find it incredible that, at this moment in time, this would be done. We’ve just approved the budget with the increase of council tax, and this increase was not mentioned at all when putting it through. It’s just even more costs to people already paying a substantial amount when wanting to bury their loved ones. “Funeral poverty is a real and big problem in this country, and this will just make it worse. At a desperate time like this, where people are losing loved ones, it’s just disgraceful to raise prices.
“People are losing younger family members, and even two or three family members in one go because of Covid, asking for £52 extra a service is just unacceptable.”
MINDLESS vandals targeted a Grimsby pub by chucking its outdoor seating into the River Freshney. Four benches and three large bins at The Barge, Grimsby, were pushed into the River Freshney at the weekend.
It is hoped the senseless “children” have been caught on the pub’s CCTV cameras, which are being examined today.
Manager at The Barge, Jess Dunlop said: “It’s not the first time this has happened – and it won’t be the last.
“But it appears they have actually been onto the boat this time – that’s a first.”
Three kind-hearted people turned up to help Jess with the clean up on Sunday, which took about three hours. They included Councillor Ron Shepherd, James Elliott, also known as The Canoe River Cleaner, and Andy from the action group Enough is Enough.
Councillor Shepherd, portfolio holder for safer and stronger communities, said: “It is disgraceful behaviour and unwarranted. “We have the CCTV and I will trawl through it all and name and shame those caught on camera. “The perpetrators will face the full strength of the law.”
The four worked together to retrieve the benches, bins and other waste - such as bin bags - from the water.
For the larger items, Jess and James worked to attach a rope to them, while Ron hooked this up to his van to tow the items out of the river.
Andy helped to pull each item out, taking its weight and adjusting its position to make it easier on everybody.
It came just hours after James, also known as The Canoe River Cleaner, cleared the River Freshney from other people’s rubbish.
He said: “I was gutted based on the fact that I had just cleaned the Riverhead the day before.
“I got a message saying ‘Look at this’, with a picture of all this in the river. I had to come out and help with the clean-up.
“We just want to spread awareness so more people pay attention to our rivers – and think twice about littering in them.
“We want people to become more self-aware and to be proud of where they are from.”
Andy said: “James spends too much time cleaning up after others. “It’s good that we have nice people who will come out to help us to clean it all up.”