Wolverhampton cemetery’s additional payment for wider graves criticised as ‘fats tax’ | Wolverhampton

Residents of Wolverhampton have criticised what’s being referred to as a “fats tax” on burial plots after a metropolis cemetery imposed a premium on wider graves.

Danescourt cemetery in Tettenhall will cost an additional 20% to households whose family members want a 6ft-wide plot, versus a normal 5ft grave.

Wolverhampton council stated the value premium was in response to a rise in weight problems ranges within the metropolis, the place a 3rd of individuals are overweight, in contrast with the nationwide common of simply over 1 / 4.

The council stated it had contacted 25 funeral administrators earlier than introducing the measure, with solely one among them posing an objection.

The funeral director Ross Hickton informed the BBC the cost was a “fats tax” and that it was “probably not acceptable or honest”.

He stated: “ folks have paid into the system their complete life, paid their council tax to Wolverhampton council, and for them to be informed [the grave is] 20% extra due to the scale of their beloved one, it’s probably not acceptable or honest.”

Matthew Crawley, the chief government on the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Administration, stated the cost appeared cheap. “You may have a finite quantity of area to work with; subsequently if you should eat right into a grave subsequent door, say, then that must be accounted for,” he stated. “You additionally must account for the concept that digging the grave itself may even want additional gear to maintain it secure.”

The prices, the council stated, mirrored “the elevated prices incurred in offering [wider graves], together with disposing of the extra soil”. “Many different native councils, together with Birmingham and Walsall, cost greater charges for bigger graves,” it stated.

Throughout the UK, the image is blended. A survey by the Nationwide Society of Allied and Impartial Funeral Administrators of its members discovered 1 / 4 of native authorities charged additional for wider burial plots.

There was additionally a priority in Wolverhampton for {couples} who wished to be buried collectively, however the place one was already buried in a normal plot whereas the opposite wanted to be buried in a bigger grave.

At Danescourt, the council stated, “whereas area permits, [families] will nonetheless be capable of select to put bigger coffins on the finish of present rows” at no additional price”. However in any other case, the council informed a funeral director in an e mail seen by the BBC, the household would “have to contemplate burying the bariatric associate elsewhere, buying a second grave or exhuming the primary associate to make sure they are often buried collectively”.