Cost of cemetery and burial fees in Mid Ulster to rise by 10 per cent

Speaking at a the latest meeting of the environment committee, Councillor Mark Glasgow noted plans to increase charges for cemeteries and burial services by 10 per cent and told officers that with such an increase people “will be expecting a much better quality of service”.

The price of purchasing a gravel plot will increase to £234, the interment charge for an adult will cost £234, the burial of an adult’s ashes will cost £111, exhumation will cost £482, a headstone permit will cost £75 while a search/reissue or transfer of a certificate will cost £29.

There will still be no charge for the interment of a child or the burial of a child’s ashes.

Cllr Glasgow asked why these costs were increasing and said he hoped it would lead to a cleaner cemetery in Cookstown.

“What does the 10 per cent increase cover? Is it the cost of running the machinery and maintaining the graveyard?

“If the fee is going up people will be expecting, and quite rightly so, a much better quality of service and this brings us back to the issue of dog fouling.

“I was in a graveyard on Sunday and I certainly came out with more dog foul on my shoe than what I went in with. If the fees are going up we need to be making sure the level of service goes up with it also.”

Council’s assistant director of environmental services, Mark McAdoo explained the cost increase is a result of a number of factors and said it was agreed several years to increase cemetery costs to bring them in line with the NI average.

“With all the charges the increases are caused by a combination of things, fuel costs have increased as have staff costs and so on,” he said.

“With cemetery charges in particular it was agreed several years ago that these would have to increase by ten percent just to bring them up to the Northern Ireland average.”

A proposal to approve the recommended price increase was then put forward by Councillor Brian McGuigan and seconded by Councillor John McNamee with the committee voicing its approval for the proposal.