Latest news with #crematorium
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Al Fayed widow loses Surrey crematorium court battle
Mohamed Al Fayed's widow has lost a Supreme Court challenge against the government over plans to build a crematorium near her home. Heini Wathen-Fayed's barristers argued in the courts the building in Tandridge, Surrey, would breach a more than 120-year-old rule that says a crematorium cannot be built within 200 yards (180m) of a argued the memorial garden of the new building, and any other place where ashes would be stored, should be included in the definition of a the High Court and Court of Appeal both ruled against her in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Lady Justice Andrews stated last year she could see "no reason" why the law should be interpreted to include "an open area where ashes are strewn".Five Supreme Court justices unanimously dismissed Ms Wathen-Fayed's latest challenge on plans, proposed by Horizon Cremation Limited, would see a ceremony hall, memorial areas and a garden of remembrance built on land near the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural District Council rejected the scheme, but a government planning inspector allowed Horizon's appeal against that decision after finding harm to the green belt was outweighed by the site's benefits.
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
A look at the new Mandai North Crematorium
Scroll up for the next video X A look at the new Mandai North Crematorium
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
New Mandai crematorium and ash-scattering garden to open on Aug 15
SINGAPORE: A new crematorium and ash-scattering garden will open in Mandai on Aug 15, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said on Monday (Jul 28). Located next to the existing Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium complex, the new Mandai North Crematorium will use automated guided vehicles to transport coffins and lockers for ash collection. It has six service and viewing halls and can house 18 cremators, but will begin operations with three halls equipped with nine cremators. It will start with four cremation services daily and ramp up progressively in the coming months. NEA said it will fit out the remaining halls and add the additional cremators to meet an anticipated increase in demand for cremations in future. For comparison, the existing crematorium, which opened in 2004, has four halls and 12 cremators. The crematorium and garden span about 2.4ha, slightly more than half the size of the Padang. Annual resident deaths are expected to increase from about 25,000 in 2024 to around 40,000 by 2040, NEA said. Meanwhile, the demand for inland ash scattering has increased from around 900 applications in 2021 to over 2,300 in 2024. 'The new crematorium will provide additional cremation capacity, and the (Garden of Serenity) will provide an additional option for the inland scattering of ashes,' said NEA. 'They will enable us to continue serving the nation's needs in the years ahead.' Bookings for cremation slots will open on Aug 9, and the crematorium and garden will be open daily. The garden will be open from 9am to 5.30pm except when it is closed for maintenance. Singapore also has two private crematoriums, but NEA handles more than 90 per cent of cremations. ASH-SCATTERING GARDEN The Garden of Serenity is the second inland ash-scattering garden in Singapore, after the Garden of Peace opened in 2021 in Choa Chu Kang. Ashes can also be scattered at sea or stored in columbariums or at home. The Garden of Serenity, which is within the new Mandai North facility, has four ash-scattering lanes in the shape of a leaf. Granite boulders that were excavated during its construction, which started in 2017, are used for seating along the lanes. The garden also features a pond and lush foliage, meant to create a peaceful and dignified environment. Each lane in the garden is named after a flower and is around 10m long. Ashes can be scattered on pebbles, which sit atop granite chippings and soil. Water sprinklers or canisters can be used to help the ashes filter through the layers. Religious ceremonies or rites, including the burning of joss sticks, leaving of food offerings and playing of music will not be allowed. However, fresh flowers can be placed on racks around the garden. At 750 sqm, the Garden of Serenity is much smaller than the Garden of Peace, which is 9,500 sqm in size. NEA said that accumulated "ash soil" will periodically be transferred from the Garden of Serenity in Mandai to a designated location in the Garden of Peace in Choa Chu Kang to ensure that people can continue to use the smaller garden. The fee for ash-scattering at the gardens is S$320. AUTOMATION, QR CODES Mandai North Crematorium will make use of technology to ensure service reliability, including through the use of automated guided vehicles to transport coffins. At the existing crematorium, staff members push a trolley carrying the coffin. Funeral service providers will receive a cremation permit with a QR code, which must be scanned outside the service hall to ensure that the casket is at the right hall at the right time. The automated guided vehicle and screen outside the service hall will also reflect the deceased's name, the date and the time, before the casket is unloaded from the hearse. A QR code on the automated vehicle will be used for verification before the coffin is placed into a cremator. Attendees will then need to be seated before the automated guided vehicle transports the casket to the front of the service hall. The service halls feature slopes instead of steps, to improve accessibility for wheelchair users. At the new facility, the viewing hall – where mourners watch the casket being transported toward the cremators – is located directly in front of the service hall. This is unlike the existing Mandai Crematorium, where the service halls are a distance away from the viewing halls. NEA said the building layout was designed to minimise walking distances, especially for elderly visitors. "A one-way visitor circulation flow caters to back-to-back cremation services, minimising the need for arriving and departing groups to cross paths. This arrangement provides a degree of privacy for each group of visitors and facilitates a sense of closure for the bereaved," the agency said. The new waiting halls at Mandai North Crematorium are also enclosed with glass panels to provide more privacy to families. When the cremated remains are ready, an ash collection permit with a QR code will be sent via email. The registration process will involve verifying the applicant's identity, before a queue number is provided and an ash-sorting room is assigned. When the queue number is called, family members can scan a QR code to unlock a locker containing the ash box. There are three walls of lockers, and the lockers open one at a time for each wall. Families can perform final rites in the ash-sorting room. Each room is equipped with a table, a bench and a wash basin.
BBC News
22-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Council set to borrow £3.5m to complete crematorium
Bolsover District Council is set to approve proposals to borrow £3.5 million to fund the completion of building works for a new council initially agreed to fund the new complex - near Shirebrook's cemetery in Common Lane, Derbyshire - at an estimated cost of £9.2m in 2022. Work on the scheme then started in 2023, but the council terminated the contract of the previous architect in 2024 due to "several significant issues" being are recommended to approve borrowing an additional £3.5 million for the completion of the project when they meet on 30 July at The Arc in Clowne. A council report said "significant costs" had been incurred throughout the project as a direct result of the "failings with the original architect" to the added following the termination of the contract, works undertaken on site "slowed significantly" and work remobilised after a new architect was council previously said the new complex would ease the strain on other crematoriums and reduce waiting times for report added: "Bringing in an architect practice who are very experienced in crematoria design, to undertake a full review and produce a co-ordinated design pack has presented an opportunity to further value engineer costs and packages of work."Every effort has been made by both the client team and the contractor to reduce costs, and where possible, they have been implemented."
CNN
05-07-2025
- CNN
‘We want an answer': They fear their relatives are among the hundreds of bodies piled up at a crematorium in Mexico
Families are demanding answers after authorities in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, discovered that 383 bodies had been stored in a crematorium for months and years after the people had died. Norma Guardado Meraz was one of many locals who visited the Chihuahua Prosecutor's Office this week to get more information about its investigation into the discovery, fearing that among the bodies are those of their relatives. The discovery was made on June 26 after several municipal police officers found a hearse containing two bodies and other corpses piled up in a room in the building's courtyard. Prosecutor César Jáuregui said the pile of bodies had accumulated since 2020, suggesting that the Plenitud crematorium had failed to perform services it had been subcontracted for by six funeral homes. 'We want an answer so we can be satisfied and for the authorities to help us see what's going on, so we can be sure we have the right person in our urn,' Guardado Meraz told CNN. She and her family want clarity about the fate of the remains of her mother, María Nieves Meraz, who died three years ago and was mourned at one of the funeral homes that had subcontracted the crematorium. Another resident, Javier Ramírez, went to the prosecutor's office Wednesday to determine if the remains he had received actually belong to his father, who died two months ago and whose wake was held at one of the other funeral homes. CNN is trying to contact the managers of the funeral homes for comment. 'They just tell us they'll let us know when they have information, but they don't know how long it will take. In other words, we just have to wait and see what they tell us,' Ramírez told CNN. CNN has asked the prosecutor's office how many complaints it has received in this case and is awaiting a response. The office said Tuesday that of the 383 bodies found, 218 were men, 149 were women and the gender of 16 could not been identified. Authorities have detained the owner of the company that operated the crematorium and his assistant in connection with the discovery. They were scheduled to appear in court on Friday. CNN is trying to contact their legal defense team to find out how they will respond to the charges against them. As the case moves forward, the prosecutor's office is promising a thorough investigation and says it encourages more people to come forward and demand answers. CNN's Michael Rios contributed to this story.
