Cremations near eateries mooted

Former Twentymans owner Maxwell Twentyman said putting a cremator in the centre of town was "undignified" and it should be in a cemetery. Photo / Thinkstock

Business owners horrified after undertaker says he wants to burn human bodies at his main-street premises.

Thames residents are horrified an undertaker wants to cremate bodies near bars and eateries on the town's main street.

But Adrian Catran, owner of Twentymans Funeral Directors in Pollen St, said he was not planning to build a crematorium in the Coromandel Peninsula town of 8000 - though he had considered installing a cremator.

"I never said I was going to build a crematorium, it said I was going to put a cremator in," said the former Thames-Coromandel deputy mayor.

A crematorium is the facility in which a cremator - the deviceused to burn human remains - is housed.

But regardless of the exact type of facility to be built, about 1800 signatures from people opposed to the cremation of bodies in the area have been collected by a group of concerned residents and business owners, including Thames pub proprietor Karl Edmonds.

He said a cremator would be close to about eight bars and eateries in Thames' historic Grahamstown district where both Twentymans and Mr Edmonds' own business, The Junction Hotel, were located.

"You don't dispose of bodies near eating places. It should be done in a green space - in a beautiful garden setting, not where people are living.

"People perceive a crematorium to be a bad thing, so they've said they won't come to our businesses if there's a crematorium here."

Mr Edmonds said there was space on Thames Coromandel District Council-owned land at a nearby cemetery for a cremation facility.

Former Twentymans owner Maxwell Twentyman said putting a cremator in the centre of town was "undignified" and it should be in a cemetery. "There's a right place and a wrong place for everything in life, and I don't believe a crematorium should be built within 200 metres of restaurants."

Local mayor Glenn Leach said the council had not received an application from Mr Catran relating to installing a cremator and was in limbo until one was lodged.

There was no specific mention of cremators in the council's district plan so he was not able to say if a consent would be required.

But a council spokesman said Mr Catran had made inquiries about consents for installing a cremator at a site in Queen St, within metres of the Grahamstown shops on Pollen St.

The spokesman said the site was zoned Centre - Heritage Policy Area, meaning a resource consent might be needed to build or alter existing buildings on the site.

A spokesman for the Waikato Regional Council said contact had been made with Mr Catran regarding a consent needed for discharging contaminants into the air from a crematorium.

"Mr Catran confirmed that he intended to construct a crematorium and was aware that a consent would be required from us," the spokesman said, adding that a formal application had not yet been made.

The chairman of New Zealand Independent Funeral Homes, Jennifer Battersby, said modern machines were very efficient and she would not be concerned about one being present near an eatery.

She said cremators were present at funeral homes in Auckland and Wellington.