A funeral director with more than 50 years experience says the demand for funerals and number of deaths as a result of Covid this winter has been the worst he's ever seen.

John Weir, who has a well-established funeral directors in Medway, said the pressure on the funeral industry during second wave of the pandemic had been overwhelming.

"It's an understatement to say it's been a very, very emotionally draining time," he told KentOnline.

"I've been in this industry for 50 years and I've never known anything like the volume of deaths and funerals taking place."

It comes as it was confirmed the temporary morgue at Aylesford, run by Kent County Council (KCC) and the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF), will "stand down shortly".

Crisis planners have been balancing a sensitive job to ensure there has been enough room to store bodies due to morgue capacity in hospitals being overrun during the winter.

The temporary place of rest at Aylesford had to be set up to provide additional space for 825 bodies.

But with so many deaths in such a short space of time, mortuary space quickly filled up with funeral directors and venues having to organise more and more services.

Mr Weir said this hit a peak in early February when deaths nationally were about 40% higher than the five-year average for that time of year.

The facility at Aylesford opened in January after hospitals saw admissions and deaths rise in the preceding weeks leading to hospital and funeral home morgues filling up faster than funerals could be organised.

The bleak reality of requiring a larger temporary mortuary acknowledged the pressure health and social care and the funeral industry had been facing.

KCC this week confirmed it is working with colleagues in the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) to "stand down Aylesford shortly".

A spokesman said members of the forum's Death Management Process Group will continue to meet and assess the need for the additional capacity provided.

"It's an understatement to say it's been a very, very emotionally draining time..."

The Aylesford morgue – which in most years is never required – was built in April 2020 and was not needed during the first wave of the pandemic last year until the first bodies were taken there on New Year's Day.

It has not been revealed how many people have been taken to Aylesford since the facility opened or whether it reached capacity at any stage.

Mr Weir revealed funeral directors and crisis planners at the KRF held weekly meetings to share information about morgue capacity at funeral homes and staffing levels to ensure services could take place.

A traffic light system detailing funeral directors' morgue capacity was also established with three levels – green, amber and red.

"It gives them an accurate picture of the state of play across the county about whether the place of rest at Aylesford needs to be active," Mr Weir added.

"Demand has tailed off but in early February, deaths were about 40% above the five-year average nationally.

"It didn't have to be activated in the first wave. The pressure on hospital mortuary space was colossal."

He said the facility at Aylesford had been "near capacity" prompting officials to come up with "contingency plans in place to expand if needs be".

A KCC spokesman said the situation had not become serious enough for further additional capacity to be required.

Waiting times for funerals had hit on average about 23 days – about 10 days longer than normal.

But Mr Weir said this could be reduced by families booking traditionally less popular times for services which had been made available by crematorium.

Services have been shortened and the number of slots increased to allow more funerals to take place while allowing venues to adhere to government restrictions with extra cleaning and sanitising in chapels after each service.

"We are a very one to one business. But what's nice is there have been some really wonderful letters of understanding from families, especially bearing in mind they are grieving," Mr Weir added.

The 67-year-old was named a High Sheriff of Kent last week and says he's "deeply humbled" to receive the title.

For the latest coronavirus news and advice, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Medway