The Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst revealed that the two main funeral homes are looking to construct their own crematoriums, as the government continues to work on getting the new cemetery at Tomlinson’s open.
In light of an increasing population, the government has been holding discussions from around 2017 in relation to the need to have a crematorium on Antigua in order to reduce the burden on cemeteries to find land space to bury the deceased.
They had also engaged with at least one funeral home over the initial plan, and announced that they were ready to change the law to allow crematoriums to take place.
However, as time passed, and as the government began to initiate talks with a trio of Canadian businesswomen over their proposal to build a crematorium, it was suggested that their interest cooled as the two businesses balked at the cost of running a crematorium — at least according to Hurst at the time.
However, as talks with the overseas investors broke down over a miscommunication with the government, it seems that the funeral homes have now reconsidered the idea of building their own crematoriums.
“The problem is that they can’t build them on the site where they now exist, so in the case of Barnes Funeral Home, they’ve decided that they would build somewhere along Factory Road and I believe that they have identified the piece of land on which they will build a new funeral home,” Hurst said during yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing.
According to the Chief of Staff, although having a single crematorium that would cater to customers of both businesses would solve the problem, he suggested that both businesses have chosen to operate their own crematorium separately.
Meanwhile, Hurst said there has been no major update as to timeline as to when the Tomlinson’s Cemetery would become operational.
He indicated that the fence needs to be completed, as well as the construction of public bathrooms, an administrative building for burial technicians and other structures.
