VIEWS SOUGHT ON PLAN FOR MULTI-FAITH CREMATORIUM

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Views sought on plan for multi-faith crematorium

A new multi-faith crematorium has been proposed for south Leicestershire.

Developers Westerleigh Group have not yet submitted plans to Blaby District Council, but will meet with residents tomorrow and on Friday to discuss the scheme.

The proposed site in Leicester Road, Countesthorpe, will include a ceremony room, memorial gardens and landscaping.

The £3 million development is being unveiled at two public consultations at Countesthorpe village hall, in Station Road.

The company's commercial director Adrian Britton said: "Leicestershire is the worst served county in the country for crematoria – there are just two which serve very large numbers and are being stretched."

The facade of the main building will include an interchangeable religious symbol which can be switched to represent the faith of the service.

There will also be wash rooms and a viewing area for Sikh ceremonies, which traditionally involve watching the coffin entering the furnace.

Mr Britton said: "The idea is to design the crematorium in a manner which will offer an atmosphere in which families can grieve in peaceful surroundings.

"We also want to make sure it is sensitively designed to complement the rural surroundings, and we are holding the exhibition to get feedback before submitting our plans."

The developers said the low-profile building would be screened from the road and the village would benefit from additional landscaping and trees.

A spokesman for Countesthorpe Parish Council said: "We're meeting with the developers tomorrow and talking about the plans then, but we don't know what's involved so don't have an opinion yet.

"We'll be listening to residents and will help anyway we can as part of the consultation process – but there hasn't been a planning application submitted yet so it's very early days."

There are two crematoria in the city and county – one at Gilroes cemetery, in Leicester, and the other in Loughborough.

Developers say the site has been chosen because it is accessible to people living in Blaby, south Leicester and neighbouring districts.They expect to hold four to five services a day.

All services will be coordinated with local funeral directors.Colin Moore, adviser at The Funeral Consultancy, in Bullhead Street, Wigston, welcomed the proposals for the crematorium.

Mr Moore, who arranges bespoke funerals as well as bereavement counselling, said: "I believe it's needed, from the funeral directors I talk to. Cremations are becoming much more popular than traditional burials."

The public exhibition will take place between 3pm and 6pm tomorrow , and 9am and 1pm on Friday.

FINAL TRIBUTES ARE PAID TO CITY'S SIKH WAR HERO

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Final tributes are paid to city's Sikh war hero

A Sikh war veteran who was "respected by all who met him" has been laid to rest in his adopted home town.

Family and friends from as far a field as Australia, Botswana and India gathered, in Leicester, yesterday for the funeral of Harnam Singh.

Described as a pillar of the community, in Leicester and his native Punjab, Harnam died last month, aged 84.

Son Armarjit, who now lives in Perth, Australia, said: "My father was a great soldier and absolutely fearless as a man – spiritually, physically, morally – in every sense.

"Everything he did came straight from the heart. He was much-loved and respected by all who met him."

Harnam was born into a humble farming family in the village of Lasara and as a teenager fought on the frontline against the Japanese with the British Indian Army in Burma.

He distinguished himself for his bravery as a tank gunner with the 8th King George V Own Light Cavalry during the campaign.

He went on to have a successful career in the Indian Army following independence until his retirement, ranked honorary lieutenant, in 1973.

Harnam became a British citizen, in 1992, when he moved to Leicester, living in Spinney Hills with his wife Daljit Kaur, 82.

For the past six years , the couple lived at the home of his eldest daughter Balbir Kaur Jabbal, in Welford Road.

Balbir, 52, said: "It's hard to say goodbye to someone who was so strong. He was a war hero but also my hero too. We all loved and miss him, my mother especially."

Mourners gathered at the family home, in Welford Road, in the morning to sing hymns and recite prayers from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scriptures.

His funeral, attended by more than 150 people, took place at Gilroes Crematorium, where granddaughters Aman Preet Kaur, 30, from Australia, and Gaggan Kaur Jabbal, 12, from Leicester, each gave an address to the congregation.

The service was followed by further hymns and prayers at a celebration of Harnam's life at the Gurudwara Guru Tegh Bhadur temple, in East Park Road, Spinney Hills.

Son Dr Maninderjit Singh Pabla, 58, from the Punjab, said: "My father was a disciplinarian, a hard worker and intelligent person who had a flair for helping people."

"He paid for health clinics for villagers back in Lasara and set up a scholarship for hard-working students at the local school.

"In Leicester, he also devoted his time to helping others, including many elderly people who spoke little English.

"One of his proudest moments was meeting the Queen during a visit to Leicester in the 1994."

Daughter Kulwant Kaur, 50, from Botswana, said: "I was so proud of my father.

"He was a true community leader and happiest when helping others."Surinderpal Singh Rai, general secretary of the Guru Tegh Bhadur, said: "Harnam was a charismatic, jolly character who will be missed by all."

Harnam died at home on January 25 after suffering from bladder cancer for two years.

FOCUS GROUP ON BEREAVEMENT SERVICES

Saffron Hill Cemetery

At the Cathedral Centre, St Martins, this evening, for a different sort of meeting of Leicester Council of Faiths - well, certainly different from any I've attended during my time working for them. A focus group session involving members of the full Council of Faiths and invited guests (mainly representatives of the Muslim Burial Council for Leicestershire). We meet at the Cathedral Centre, for a presentation and discussion on Leicester City Council's Bereavement Services. Bereavement Services is undergoing its first formal review since 2003.

The presentation is led by Richard Welburn, Head of Parks and Green Spaces, Leicester City Council (with four City Councillors in attendance). Bereavement Services is part of the City Council's Parks and Green Spaces Service. It provides for burial, cremation, grounds maintenance of cemeteries and administration. It employs 25 staff and runs four cemeteries and one crematorium.

We're introduced to the historical background, facts and figures and legislative requirements currently affecting provision of bereavement services and the operational procedures determining how these services are delivered. There are four cemeteries in Leicester today:

• Welford Road (est 1849) which is included in the Register of Historic Landscape and is closed for new burials;
• Belgrave (est 1881) which is closed for new burials;
• Gilroes (est 1902) which is the location of Leicester's crematorium;
• Saffron Hill (est 1931) which is included in the Register of Historic Landscape, the Chapel Lodge and Gates of which are grade II listed.

We're told about current challenges faced by this service in the city:

• mercury abatement (there's a statutory requirement to reduce the amount of mercury vapour emitted into the atmosphere from fillings in the teeth of those being cremated);
• acquisition or extension of burial land (Gilroes has 3-4 years estimated capacity at current levels, Saffron Hill 5-6 years, less if proposed land extension to Gilroes doesn't proceed);
• memorial safety (a sensitive subject since memorials remain the property of the family of the decease and their upkeep is not the City Council's responsibility);
• systems (much information related to this service is recorded manually, it's costly to transpose large amounts of such records onto computer, large amounts of staff taken up with answering questions about historic burials that can require lengthy, complex and manual searches);
• multi faith provision.

While many of us would probably be interested in some or all of these issues, it's this last one that concerns the Council of Faiths most - obviously. In terms of serving the diverse faith communities of Leicester, the Jewish Torah was opened at Gilroes in 1902; a Muslim Janazgah was at Saffron Hill in 1985, and Hindu, Sikh and Jain facilities were introduced at Gilroes in 1989. The biggest challenge facing the Parks and Green Spaces Service in this topic area now is the provision of additional mourner accommodation at Gilroes.

Parks and Green Spaces identifies the main risk for this review as being "that individual religious groups think independently and pursue self interest." And their solution? "By using the Council of Faiths as an intermediary, rather than meeting with individual focus groups, we hope to mitigate the likelihood of this occurring."