A Belfast alderman has chastised City Hall for what he has described as the “pitiful” slow progress of the council in building a new city crematorium, and finding a site for a new cemetery.
UUP Alderman Jim Rodgers, at the recent full meeting of Belfast City Council, attacked the speed of development of the new £18 million crematorium at Roselawn on Ballygowan Road, which still hasn't had a brick laid two years since the plan was put to councillors. He also bemoaned the lack of a site for a proposed new cemetery, telling the chamber that Roselawn was quickly “running out of burial space.”
Alderman Jim Rodgers said: “Over the last two and a half years, little or nothing has happened in regards to the development of the crematorium, and in regards finding a site for the new cemetery. I am not at all happy with the progress. One of the reasons is staff working from home. The whole thing is totally unsatisfactory.
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“Approximately eight months ago we spent a full day visiting four different sites. When we finally got a report, four sites were reduced to two. It can’t go on - we need action here.
“We are fast running out of burial space at Roselawn. The crematorium should have been opened this year - it only went to the Planning department of Lisburn and Castlereagh Council a few weeks ago.
“So people need to get their fingers out, because this is most important, the burial and cremation of the dead. And there are other members here that share that view, and we are not getting the answers that we need. We have looked at sites, and in the eyes of most of us these sites would not be suitable for a new cemetery.”
The plan for two new chapels at Roselawn was approved by elected representatives at Belfast council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee in December 2020. Councillors chose a design involving the provision of a 160 ground floor seat capacity and a 40 seat mezzanine.
The Roselawn single chapel building is Northern Ireland’s only crematorium, with only six in total on the island of Ireland. The future use of the current listed crematorium building has not yet been determined.
He said: “What I am saying tonight loud and clear is, we need movement, we need action, and it has been pitiful to see how slow the pace has been over the past few months. Two and a half years working on this - if it was the private sector they would have had it built within 12 months.”
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