Crematorium operation leased to private firm

A private company has been given the contract to run Whangarei's public crematorium. 
The Whangarei District Council will lease the crematorium, at Maunu Cemetery, to Maunu Crematorium, a company set up by the Auckland-based Hill family which owns Whangarei-based Morris & Morris Funerals.
The cost of a cremation is set to rise from $450 to $595.
Maunu Crematorium will spend $500,000 replacing the crematorium's ageing cremator and pay rent to the council.

 Council  infrastructure services manager Simon Weston said that as landlord, the council had a management contract in place with a series of performance standards that must be adhered to.
Cemetery staff and Maunu Crematorium management will work together and Morris & Morris will pay the same fees as any other funeral service to use the crematorium.
The council and the company had agreed to lift the cremation fee and the new cremator would be able to do almost double the 450 to 500 cremations carried out in Whangarei every year.
There are also about 140 burials in Whangarei a year.
Mr Weston said the venture followed several years of investigations by the council into ways to replace the district's ageing cremator and provide better cremation services, at a reasonable cost to the ratepayer.
"Morris & Morris Funerals had been investigating establishing  its own crematorium in Northland during the same period and approached the council with a proposal to work together," he said.
"By combining resources, the council and Morris & Morris Funerals will be able to make use of the existing chapel and surrounds rather than duplicating them with a second cremator sited elsewhere in the region."
The council will lose approximately $200,000 per year income from the crematorium.
But it will not have to fork out the $150,000 annual running costs as Maunu Crematorium will be financing the operation.
The new cremator could be up and running in April.
It will be capable of handling an expected increase in demand for cremations as the district's population grows and ages.
The council and the new company have also agreed on a set fee for cremations, ensuring that all funeral  companies and any other parties booking a cremation will be charged the same set fee by the cremation company.
"The council is keen for the price to be held to the lowest possible figure, although there will be an initial increase to enable the costs of the new cremator to be covered," Mr Weston said.
"The council would have had to increase prices if it had purchased and installed the new cremator, but this way much of the cost was being carried by the new company rather than the ratepayer," he added.