Projected costs for a new two-chapel crematorium at Roselawn have spiralled to £23million
Roselawn Cemetery(Image: Google)
The long-running saga over the creation of a second crematorium at Roselawn Cemetery in East Belfast appears to have come to end after Belfast City Council voted to reject a Sinn Féin proposal to build a crematorium at Milltown.
On a close vote at the November full council meeting at City Hall this week, votes from Alliance, the Unionist parties and the Green Party pushed through a decision to progress a new two-chapel crematorium at Roselawn Cemetery.
At a secret committee meeting at City Hall last month held away from the public and press, a proposal by Sinn Féin to “progress the continued investigation of Milltown as an alternative site” for a one-chapel crematorium was bypassed after a DUP amendment found sufficient votes.
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The DUP proposal was to proceed with a decision agreed in February, again in secret restricted sessions, to progress a new two-chapel crematorium at Roselawn. Twelve councillors voted for the proposal and eight against and it was declared carried. Sinn Féin “called in” the February decision for legal analysis and to force a reconsideration.
There are two crematoriums in Northern Ireland, the City of Belfast Crematorium at Roselawn Cemetery, run by Belfast City Council, and Antrim and Newtownabbey Crematorium, at Doagh Road, Newtownabbey, run by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council. Belfast councillors have been debating a new crematorium at the Roselawn site for over a decade.
Also at the February committee meeting councillors agreed to task officers with investigating a process to de-list the current building at Roselawn, which is a Grade B1 listed building, a situation which will limit any proposed re-development.
At the November meeting of the full council on Monday (November 3), Sinn Féin again tried to halt the decision on Roselawn, and defer consideration based on “new information” they said had come from the Bishop of Down and Connor, Reverend Alan McGuckian.
Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy said at the full council: “We have asked questions about the costs of what will be involved in the building of a new two-chapel crematorium at the Roselawn site. Since this was first mooted the costs have spiralled – we are now talking about something in the region of £23 million.
“We have always asked if something could be done which was significantly less, and if there was something we could do about accessibility for a significant proportion of people who live in the city of Belfast. When people are at their lowest, grieving and going through the process of waking family members, they then have to make a trek out to Roselawn, which is quite long in terms of distance.
“If you take places like Mount Eagles, out on the furthest part of the west, it is a 12 mile journey from there. If you are coming from the outskirts of the north in Ligoniel, it is a similar journey.”
He added: “My understanding is that as recently as yesterday there has been additional correspondence sent to party group leaders from the Bishop of Down and Connor, asking the council to reconsider its position. There is no one in this council that would agree we don’t need added investment at the Roselawn site, we know it is not fit for purpose, and we know it needs an upgrade.
“What we are asking is for the council to take time to reconsider the current approach, and see if we can do something that is right for all the citizens of Belfast, by improving accessibility, by having a new single chapel crematorium built in a different part of Belfast.”
Alliance Councillor Michael Long said at Monday’s meeting: “For far too long people have had to use a crematorium which is at a level that is not acceptable, for people who are grieving and at such a difficult time in their lives. We have already talked about this for at least a decade, and we have spent six months with a call-in.”
Green Party Councillor Anthony Flynn said: “It is important to remember that Roselawn Crematorium was first built in the 1960’s, when it was built for a total capacity of 700 cremations a year. We are now over 3,000 a year – does anyone here believe we are not now in a critical situation for the future of that site?”
He added: “The staff at that site are absolutely fantastic, they are doing a brilliant job, particularly during coronavirus>Covid, when that was a critical piece of infrastructure. And what have we done to repay them?
“We have kept this ridiculous conversation going on for years. Whenever we go there to visit the staff, they keep saying what is going on, we have been promised something for years.” He said the situation on the ground was “dire in many respects.”
A vote on Sinn Féin proposal to defer a final decision on Roselawn for further consideration received 27 votes in favour from Sinn Féin, the SDLP, independents and People Before Profit, and 28 against, from the DUP, Alliance, the Green Party, the UUP, and the TUV. The Sinn Féin proposal was declared lost, and the committee decision to proceed with a new two chapel crematorium was passed.
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