Bradford Council retracks funeral fines

Bradford Council has issued a statement in response to the decision to discard fines for over-run funeral processions.

The statement comes after the council had considered introducing a £160 fine for funerals that overran by more than 20 minutes.

The apparent “U-turn” in the council’s decision was due to the backlash received by local funeral directors who argued it was “morally wrong” to charge people during a time of mourning.

A Bradford Council spokesperson commented that an increasing number of funerals over recent months have “unfortunately been overrunning” which has caused issues for cleaning, social distancing and have caused upset to other families.

The spokesperson said: “Our bereavement officers have seen that other local authority areas charge for overrunning and therefore were considering doing this too as incentive to keep within the time. Here in Bradford district we have never had such a charge.

“Officers see the distress of families when other families’ funerals over-run at this very busy time and are obviously thinking about what more they can do so that families can have their loved one’s funeral at the time allotted.”

The council added: “Officers were therefore considering a charge for services that overran and have communicated this in recent days but this is not something that had come forward for a council decision and will therefore not now be happening.

“We have written to funeral directors to let them know that this charge will not be introduced. However it’s a distressing time for families and we would ask everyone to consider how over-running may impact on other grieving families time to mourn.”