Agenda item

Report of the Director for Development and Economic Growth

The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager delivered a presentation which provided the Group with an update about Rushcliffe Oaks Crematorium.

The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager explained that the Crematorium had held 506 cremations in its first year, of which 32 were direct cremations without a service. She presented the Group with financial information which set out the monthly income generated compared to target income, by month, and noted that income had increased over the year and demonstrated business growth. She explained that the initial business case projections for income had been overly optimistic for a newly opened business and as such had subsequently been reviewed.

The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that total income for the year amounted to £485k which meant that a £61k surplus had been achieved. In comparing the number of services held over the year, she noted that 22 had taken place in April 2023 and 52 in April 2024, with projected income for 2024 being £710k, or £683k without memorialisation income which was projected to be £27k.

In relation to memorialisation, the Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that sales had initially been slow but were increasing and it was hoped that opening up the bottom third of the site which would include a wildflower meadow would also increase sales. She noted that circa 4% of the population chose to have a memorialisation at the crematorium where a service took place.

The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager explained that the Team had sought feedback from local funeral directors which had been extremely positive, saying that the service provided was professional and welcoming. She said that the Team aimed to accommodate all types of service requests, whilst being mindful of safety concerns, and welcomed all faiths and all types of funerals and had generous service times which meant that services did not impact on each other. She added that they also had a comfort dog, possibly being the only crematorium which had one, which had proved popular, particularly in providing a distraction for children. She said that the Crematorium was also operationally carbon neutral.

In relation to competition and communications and marketing, the Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that the Team had visited funeral directors in the area to better understand the market and where people were coming from and had looked at how best to share news. She said that the Team were including adverts in hospital bereavement brochures and sent quarterly newsletters to funeral directors. The Team had held two Open Days which had been very well attended and posted sensitive updates on social media. The Crematorium had also received exposure from having a comfort dog which had generated news and radio press items and who was a finalist in the BBC Make a Difference Awards.

Referring to future focus for the Crematorium, the Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that the Team had needed to build resilience to allow for annual leave and unforeseen circumstances and had trained additional Council staff so that they could step in to provide support when needed. She said that the Team hoped to attend appropriate events in villages and look at different ways of marketing, perhaps through charities, and use the success of having a comfort dog. She added that it was hoped to install a beehive on the site to enhance biodiversity and that they were offering the site to host partner and national events and wanted to expand their knowledge about all faiths to be better able to meet needs.

The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that they had recently received a visit from 34 delegates from South Korea to learn about their technology and grounds  and their biodiversity and carbon neutral features.

The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that the Team were looking at other memorialisation options and would be benchmarking fees ahead of the review in 2025/2026.

The Chair referred to the financial information and asked for clarification in relation to the £200k projected growth in income and how much of that would be profit. The Service Manager Economic Growth and Property said that it would be necessary to review costs to ascertain the profit margin, the figures provided were total projected income rather than profit. The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that the facility was projected to pay back the capital investment within 15 years.

Councillor Chewings referred to the Cabinet report in October 2018 which had projected the need for 1000 cremations in the area and also referred to the number of deaths in the Borough and said that there was an existing crematorium at Wilford Hill. He said that the business case had been for the facility to generate a revenue return and asked for greater financial detail, including costs, to allow for more analysis and understanding of the financial situation.

The Service Manager Economic Growth and Property confirmed that the Council did track expenditure to monitor progress against target and to inform future projections. She highlighted that as a new facility there was much work taking place to grow the business, part of which included competition and changing people’s habits and noted that the facility was used by residents outside of the Borough and she said that there was confidence that the business would continue to grow.

Councillor Mason said that whilst one factor of the business case had been income generation, another driving force had been to provide a valued service to the community, particularly as Wilford Hill was coming to the end of its life and had to close annually for lengths of time for maintenance. She asked about whether Rushcliffe Oaks had to close for maintenance and the Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that it did and had closed for a week this year but this also included time for completing the ground work to the bottom third of the site.

Councillor Mason asked about the Crematorium’s green roof and the Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that it was self-maintaining, only needing to be watered if it was very hot and dry.

Councillor Mason asked about the solar panels on the site and the Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that they had provided sufficient energy to meet the baseload requirements for the building as had been planned, this did not include the cremator.

Councillor Parekh asked about how the facility was catering to the diverse and different faith needs of the community. The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that the Team had engaged with members of the Sikh and Hindu community before it had opened and whilst it was a secular facility they had many different signs required for many different services and families were welcome to bring their own additional items. She said that they were flexible to meet differing needs and accommodate different elements as much as possible. She said that the Team were looking to learn more.

Councillor R Walker referred to the 4% of families choosing memorialisation and the benefit of focussing resource on that provision. The Rushcliffe Oaks Manager said that whilst the Crematorium did not spend too much time on them it did want to respond to feedback from clients who had asked for things, such as tree memoria.

Members of the Group congratulated Rushcliffe Oaks Manager and the Council for providing such a superb, welcoming and well run facility for the community and for its successful first year since opening.

The Chair agreed an Action for further financial information, including costs, to the circulated to the Group.

It was RESOLVED that the Growth and Development Scrutiny Group:

a)    Reviewed the actions taken in response to the Group’s suggestions in July 2023

b)    Identified new opportunities to further promote and develop the offer at Rushcliffe Oaks.