Undertakers’ uphill battle after hearse parking ban

UNDERTAKERS have been forced to carry coffins up a hill through a town centre after a council banned them from parking directly outside a church.

Hearses and funeral cars can no longer pull up in bays outside Aylesbury Methodist Church, Bucks, as they have done for “many years”.

Instead, it has been suggested that the hearses are parked down the road and the coffins carried through the town centre.

Allan Horne, a funeral steward at Aylesbury Methodist Church, said: “For many years, we have used their cones to close the two parking bays outside the church to enable the hearse and funeral cars to stop, and carry out their funeral duties. The council are now insisting that we cannot do this, and will not allow us to use these bays.

“They suggest we park the hearse on the double yellow lines further down the road, and carry the coffin down the pavement. Not very dignified.

“With two parking bays out of use for, maybe, three hours, it means that our council lose a massive £6.”

There are two pay-and-display bays outside the church, which have traditionally been coned off when a coffin is being transported to the building.

Mr Horne said there was recently an altercation with a “very belligerent” parking warden, who tried to move the cones during a funeral. He said: “After a heated debate, he rang his boss, who had instructed him to do so, but refused to let me speak to the boss.”

Mark Averill, the head of highways at Buckinghamshire county council said: “We have taken the opportunity to remind our civil enforcement officers that discretion can be applied in such situations.”