A COUNCIL needs to spend £2m to replace the cremator at Birtley Crematorium, or risk being unable to deal with the number of bodies in the event of a pandemic.

Gateshead councillors will be asked to approve spending on a new cremator as the current one has been in place for 29 years.

A report on the proposals says although the cremator is ‘well maintained’, costs are rising.

In December 2017 an urgent shut-down for three weeks was required for three weeks because of excessive smoke and it cost £6,000 to repair.

By March smoke was visible again and another shut down took place. In April the council decided to close Birtley Crematorium until a full repair took place, it reopened in June but is being carefully monitored by staff.

Councillors will also be warned that burial land in Birtley is expected to be full in 15 years, though the council has set aside £1.58m to buy more suitable sites.

Gateshead Council’s Cabinet will choose between three options at a meeting on Tuesday.

The first option is to shut it down for good, but this is not the advised by officers who say Saltwell Crematorium couldn’t cope with all the cremations in the area and it would lead to delays of up to four-and-a-half-weeks.

The officers’ report says: “It would result in further delays for families to hold cremation services for their loved ones causing further upset and prolonged distress, or resulting in them having to go outside of the Borough to have their loved ones cremated.”

The second option is to buy one cremator for £2.1m, while the third option is to have two smaller cremators at a cost of £2.5m.