A leading funeral firm has been given the go-ahead to create one of Britain’s biggest mortuaries despite outcry from locals.

The huge storage facility, which can hold up to 700 bodies in racks five coffins high, is headed by Pure Cremations.

Plans approved by York Council last week will now see a former telephone exchange converted into a storage facility at York Business Park, in Nether Poppleton, North Yorkshire.

It will now become one of the largest in the UK, other than the temporary structures built during Covid, which were able to hold 1,300 bodies at once.

But dozens of locals have objected to the site being transformed into what they called a ‘human conveyor belt’.

Pure Cremations provide ‘no frills’ direct cremations where the body is cremated with no family present or a formal funeral service – which costs £1,595.

Local funeral director Martin Rowley, 64, who runs Rowley & Sons Family Funeral Services in York, says he is ‘disappointed’ by the decision.

He claims the 25 or so staff employed there won’t be able to offer adequate care to the deceased.

Martin, who is also a Conservative councillor for the Osbaldwick and Derwent Ward, said: ‘This facility just endorses the impersonal, transactional, profit-driven nature of the Pure Cremations operation.

‘I’m not questioning their service, rather the industrial scale of the facility. How can so few staff realistically look after so many bodies and ensure they are kept in good condition?’

Martin added: ‘If the council really cared about people and transparency, they would have brought this planning application to the Planning Committee for determination.’

Another resident wrote on social media: ‘My son visited the Departure Lounge at their other branch in Knutsford on a recent school science trip. He was shocked.’

One wrote: ‘There is no dignity in this. Dignity is having a good undertaker to care for all aspects of giving your loved one the send-off they deserve.’

Liberal Democrat councillor Anne Hook, who previously objected, raised concerns suggesting it would affect businesses and hotels on the industrial estate.

Other objectors said that it would provide ‘zero economic integration’ for independent funeral directors, stonemasons, churches, caterers, or florists.

O’Neill Associates, acting on behalf of the company, deny these claims.

Alongside the body storage facility, six external cooling units, a new roller shutter door, and the extension of the existing car parking area will be installed, according to the planning application.

Several rooms would be built inside, including a specialist procedure area, ancillary storage, and an operational logistics base.

Plans say the facility would operate all day to store bodies collected from residences, care homes and hospices before they are sent on for cremation.

It is thought bodies would arrive in private ambulances in body bags and be checked on arrival before being placed in coffins. Racks five coffins high would store them for up to four days.

They would then be transported on to the company’s crematoriums across the UK or to third-party facilities.

Plans say the location would be closed to the public and monitored by CCTV. Pure Cremation stated in its planning application that remains would be cared for in a ‘dignified way in the discreet facility’.

O’Neill Associates, acting on behalf of the company, stated: ‘The level of employment is unlikely to have any adverse impact on the surrounding highway network.

‘Apart from vehicles entering and leaving the site, all activities, including the transfer of the deceased, occur within the building; the only noise will be from external cooling units.

‘Pure Cremation occupies similar premises on a business park in Knutsford, Cheshire, no complaints or adverse impact is reported from that site.’

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