A SCOTTISH county is facing a funeral logjam partly because it has no
crematorium.
Grieving relatives in Lanarkshire are having to wait up to 12 days to
cremate loved ones.
Yesterday Mr Bob Coates, national secretary of the Institute of
Burials and Cremations, said speeding up services or holding them
earlier in the morning might be the only way to stop delays.
The hold-ups this year have been caused by the way Christmas and New
Year holiday breaks fell.
Registrar's offices were closed for a total of eight days. Compounding
the problem is Lanarkshire's lack of a crematorium.
Lanarkshire mourners use one of Glasgow's busiest crematoria, at
Daldowie, near Uddingston, or face having to travel to Falkirk. Daldowie
handles nearly 4000 services a year.
''Measures such as holding services earlier in the morning and later
at night have been introduced at crematoria after a flu outbreak,'' said
Mr Coates.
''The alternative is to speed up services, which may not be acceptable
to relatives either.''
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