Blue Bell Hill Crematorium

by Lynn Cox

A crematorium is going to be supersized to cope with bigger bodies.

Medway Council confirmed three burners were being replaced and one of them will be designed to take larger coffins at Blue Bell Hill.

Any coffin more than 30in wide cannot be dealt with at Medway and funeral arrangements have to be made at a different crematorium.

It comes after our story about funeral director John Weir spending thousands on equipment to deal with obese people.

A council spokesman said: “Medway Council is replacing three cremators in order to meet with a government requirement to reduce the emission of pollutants.

“As these replacements need to be carried out, we are ensuring that one of the new cremators is able to take larger coffins.

“At the same time the council is improving facilities for car parking and extending the two chapels.

“It is anticipated that the crematorium will remain open while these improvements are taking place”.

Mr Weir (pictured below), who owns several funeral parlours in Medway, said over the past five years he and his staff had seen a big rise in the number of obese people they deal with.

As a result he has had to buy wider fridges and a hoist which can lift up to 50 stone and had to have the doors to his chapel significantly widened so mourners can view their loved one.

He also revealed the heaviest person he has had to deal with was 31 stone and people this big needed special coffins.

Obesity levels in Medway are among the highest in the country, with 30% of adults being severely overweight.

Medway ranked fourth in England for the size of waistlines according to health profiles compiled by the Association of Public Health Observatories.

Mr Weir said: “The provision of a larger cremation chamber at Medway Crematorium will be welcomed by users of the crematorium, who in the past have had to travel to alternative crematoria to accommodate coffins which exceed the present capacity of 30in wide.”

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