Agenda item

Submitted by Councillor M H Charlesworth

The Deputy Mayor confirmed that two questions had been received from Councillors under Rule 13.2 of Part 4 of the Constitution of the Council.

1.     Question from Cllr Michael H Charlesworth (Wigston All Saints Ward) to Councillor Garth (Bill) A Boulter, Chair of Service Delivery Committee:

Has the Council ended the practice of subsidising funerals/burials for residents whose faith is not catered for in the Borough?

Response:

The grant is available for a death occurring up to midnight on 31 March 2022. Generally, the notification of a death comes to OWBC via Leicester City Council and therefore there is a possibility of a grant request being made in early April for a death that occurred up to and including 31 March 2022. However, the availability of the grant was removed from the 2022-2023 Scale of Charges, a decision agreed by  Full Council on 21 December 2021. Advance notification of the grant ceasing has been communicated to Oadby Central Mosque, the Muslim Burial Council of Leicestershire and Leicester City Council.

2.     Question from Cllr Michael H Charlesworth (Wigston All Saints Ward) to Councillor Garth (Bill) A Boulter, Chair of Service Delivery Committee:

If a life-long resident of the Borough has to go into long-term care outside the Borough (sometimes for years) and then dies, will they be allowed to be buried in the Borough at residents' rates or will they be charged at non-resident rates?

Response:

It is common practice for Burial Authorities to charge additional interment fees (usually double) for non-residents. In some local authority areas this additional charge applies immediately once a person no longer resides within the administrative areas. In the case of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council (acting as the Burial Authority) the following definition of a resident applies and is published annually on the Council’s Scale of Charges:

For Interments a resident is defined as:

i) A person who had resided at a private address within the Borough for 5 consecutive years immediately preceding the date or death; OR

ii) A person who had at the time of death, resided in a residential or nursing home (or similar establishment) outside of the Borough for 3 years or less but had resided at an address within the Borough for the 5 consecutive years (or more) immediately preceding moving to the residential or nursing home; OR

iii) A person who had resided within the Borough for 5 consecutive years (or more) but had within the 6 months immediately preceding the date of death moved from the Borough.

Supplementary Question from Cllr Michael H Charlesworth:

In a case where people who lived in the Borough for over 50 years and developed a degenerative disease which meant they had to go into long-term care, and under rule number (ii) after 3 years they couldn’t come back to be buried at the resident rate. Can I ask Councillor Boulter and the Council to please look at those rules again?; they are rare cases but I don’t think you should be asked to pay extra for that privilege.

Response:

Our provisions are far more generous than most other Council’s at the present time, however I’m sure that we can have a look at this in exceptional cases. As a Council we have always been sympathetic to people like that.