2018

CEM069 - 7 Day Street Cleansing Services And Service Integration - 200918

A member authority is enquiring about operating a 7 day Street Cleaning service.

They are interested in receiving the following information:

1. How does your shift pattern work for seven day cover and how many weeks does a rota cover?
2. Does the shift/rota system work well and what if any are the challenges?
3. Has the authority experienced any difficulty recruiting into posts due to the 7 day shift pattern/rota they use?

The authority is also looking at service integration and would like to receive information on:

4. Where Street Cleansing operations have been integrated with waste and/or parks service, what parts of the service have you combined and how are these managed?
5. Does combining the services work well and what if any are the challenges?
6. Is there any other information you could give about your Street Cleansing operation that may be useful?

 

CEM068 - Exhumations - 200918

1.  What is the level of involvement of the Local Authorities operational teams in the carrying out of exhumations i.e. full involvement, part involvement to what extent or no involvement as the process is sub-contracted out externally?

2.  What training is given to your operational staff to undertake exhumations?

3.  When are exhumations undertaken and why is this time chosen i.e. overnight, late evening, early morning or during the day?

4.  Do you receive an income to undertake exhumations or is this costed against your operational budgets?

5.  How many exhumations have been undertaken within your local authority area over the last 10 years?

 

CEM067 - Dealing with memorials which have not been repaired by families who own them 280818

A member authority is currently looking at the actions they take with regards to Memorials that haven’t been repaired by the family.
The council currently supports these memorial with wooden stakes.
If the memorial isn’t repaired they replace the stakes as and when required, but they are now considering laying these memorials flat if it has not been repaired after a period of 12 months.

What do other authorities do with memorials that aren’t repaired by the family, if they lay flat, what was the reaction?

 

CEM066 - Extending chapel service times - 280818

A member authority is looking into converting their current Chapel service duration times of 30 minutes for a full service and 15 minutes for a Committal service to 40 minutes and 20 minute durations.

They are interested to hear from other members who have done this and what considerations were made concerning finance – fees and charges, diary change overs, potential loss of income.

 

CEM065 - Body fats during the cremation process - 100818

A member authority is experiencing an issue with a cremator from a specific manufacturer which relates to body fats during the cremation process. They are interested to learn if other APSE members have had any similar issues and if so the name of the manufacturer of the cremator.

 

CEM064 - Taking legal actions against breaches of cemetery regulations - 170718

A member authority has recently reviewed its` Cemetery Rules and a recent decision to retain the Rule to allow an area of 2ft 6 inches from the head of the grave, which includes the headstone and any other appropriate memorialisation.

They are now in a planning phase for the implementation of this Rule so that they are able to deal with it in a sensitive manner. (There are a number of graves which are not compliant with this Rule)

The member authority would like to know whether any Local Authorities have experience of taking formal/legal action in relation to individuals who persistently disregard the rules or are obstructive?

If so they would like to know what instrument have been used, e.g. Injunctions etc. and whether your council was successful in the Courts?

 

CEM063 - Offsetting the cost of public health funerals - 120618

A member authority is looking to review how they offset their increasing cost of Public Health (Control of Disease) Act funerals
They are interested to know where the council is responsible for Public Health (Control of Disease) Act funeral cost recovery:
• Do you actively recover personal effects (not cash/bank accounts) from the deceased to offset council costs of providing the funeral?
• If so what sort of items do you recover?
• Please outline how your authority disposes of these personal effects?
• What issues have you encountered in the process?

 

CEM062 - Use of wooden headstones - 120618

A member authority currently only allows granite or slate headstones, but they have recently had an enquiry regarding the possibility of a wooden headstone made from a hardwood timber that gets harder with age

They would like to know what other member authorities thoughts on wooden headstones, in particular:

• Do they foresee any problems allowing them?
• Would any rules or stipulations have to be put in place prior to the installation of the headstone?

 

CEM061 - Excess soil from grave digging - 23.05.18

A local authority has about 1-2 tonnes of displaced soil after digging a grave which equates to about 500-750 tonnes per annum. There is a need to remove this soil from sites, as there is limited opportunity to use this for landscaping.

Therefore they are interested to here from other local authorities as
to their approach to dealing with this excess soil, in particular:

Do you stockpile the excess soil before removing it from site?
If you do stockpile the soil does this need to be stored under permit from the Environment Agency?
If you dispose of the excess soil are you able to do this free of charge – i.e. where does it go and what is it used for?
If you dispose of excess soil does each load need to be tested for contamination and characterisation?
Would you class the excess soil as waste or a useable product?
If the soil is classed as a useable product what do you use it for?

 

CEM060 - Risk assessments and method statements for crematoriums - 210518

A member authority is reviewing their Council’s Risk Assessments and Method Statements for their Crematorium.

They are enquiring whether other authorities have best practice for Crematoriums that would provide some reference material for the enquiring authority to undertake the work.

Also if any authority would be willing to share their risk assessments for a Council run Crematorium they would be very grateful.

 

CEM059 - Registration of Funeral Directors - 06.03.18

A member authority is interested to know if other authorities ask funeral directors to register with them and produce insurance and qualification/accreditation information.

 

CEM058 - Grave Space Strategies - 23.02.18

A member authority is at the outset of preparing a new Grave Space Strategy and would value sight of other member authorities strategy documents in respect of grave space.

If you have a document identifying land for future graves and/or defining measures to manage the demand for grave space, that you would be happy to share.

 

CEM057 - Burial cost information – 01.02.18

A member authority is looking for burial cost information from other local authority members in order to assess its own costs and performance, in particular:

Grave digging team make-up – e.g. number of operatives, no. of mini-diggers/ tippers.
Hourly rate for the team
Time taken to dig, prep and fill in graves – preferably for different depths (e.g. 4’6”, 6’, 7’6”, 9’)
How many graves dug per year
Do they hand-dig for natural burials and if so can they provide any information on digging, prep and filling-in for these graves.

 

CEM056 - Operating hours for burials/funerals - 01.02.18

A member authority is currently reviewing their burial services.
They are looking for information regarding the current practices of other local authority-run cemeteries with regards to what their working hours are in which burials take place, and also the latest time funerals are allowed to to take place.

 

CEM055 - Cemetery machinery - 09.01.18

A member authority is enquiring as to what Machinery other Authorities use to dig Graves (JCB etc) and what they found useful or useless, fantastic or good, etc.

They would also be interested in the types of machinery used for general Cemetery operations, e.g. off road trucks etc) John Deere Gators or similar.

 

CEM054 - Backfilling of graves by families - 09.01.18

Following a recent burial, all the burial furniture and grave shoring were irretrievable as the family backfilled the grave and wouldn’t allow the cemetery staff near the grave to remove anything.
Therefore the enquiring authority is enquiring whether other local authorities allow families to backfill a grave following a burial.

Therefore they would like to ask the following questions:

Do you allow families to backfill graves?
If family are allowed to backfill the grave do you ask for an indemnity or disclaimer from the funeral director that they will instruct and supervise this and also cover against injury and loss of equipment?

If shoring or other grave furniture is lost while family are backfilling is this cost then passed onto the funeral director or the family?
Do you require risk assessments and method statements from funeral directors with regards to moving coffins from the hearse to graveside?
If you shore a grave and leave the shoring the grave when backfilling what type of shoring do you use?