Plans approved to build £9.4 million mortuary on a flood zone in Northampton

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has approved its own plans to build a mortuary on land the size of a football pitch (1.8 acres) at Booth Meadow, which sits next to Riverside Retail Park and Billing Aquadrome.

WNC Conservative councillor Mike Hallam, in charge of the project, explained why the town needs a new mortuary.

He said: “Mortuaries aren’t the most joyous of topics to discuss, but it’s an important topic nonetheless because there is currently a shortage of mortuary facilities across Northamptonshire.

“Unfortunately, what this leads to is a lack of viewing facilities for the bereaved, and it can often mean families traveling to other mortuaries in Leicester, Oxford, or London. It also leads to rising costs for the council in terms of transportation and storage.

“This proposal enables us to meet the needs of our area as well as generating income by attracting business from neighbouring areas as well. And it will enable us to provide the very latest technology and a full range of services.

"The intention is to make it something that, nationally, we can be proud of because mortuaries don't often update and change themselves.

“The current facilities within our hospitals are in much need of refurbishment and if an agreement is reached with the NHS, they can also benefit from those facilities and make a saving to the public purse as a whole.

“The facility will also enable us to better respond in terms of major incident involvement in mass fatality or a pandemic.

“So providing modern facilities that are not currently available will also be to provide services like children's pathology. We'd be able to offer non-invasive post-mortems that are required in certain faiths and other niche services as well.

"The quicker we can get this done, the better.”

The new mortuary would hold a CT scanner, councillor Hallam added.

The Environment Agency (EA) has no objections to the proposed development despite the site being located in Flood Zone 2, which is considered at risk of flooding. According to the EA, the proposed mortuary is classified as a “less vulnerable” building, which means it is considered less likely to be affected by flooding compared to other types of buildings.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Sally Beardsworth previously welcomed the plans.

She said: “We have an aging population; we need to have this provision, and it's very close to the town which makes it much easier for people to do viewings of people that they've lost. And also with the technology that there is today, the non-invasive post-mortems are much kinder for people to experience.

"So I'm very pleased that we're going to have this. It will be a great advantage to the town, and for the residents.”

Labour Councillor Keith Holland-Delamere also previously welcomed the application, labelling it "brilliant”.