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John Proffitt, President of the FBCA, will cut the ribbon at the gates of Essington Cemetery at 4:00pm on Thursday 11^th April. Do join us there if you can as we mark the official opening of this beautiful new facility serving Wolverhampton, Walsall, West Bromwich, Stafford, Sutton Coldfield, Cannock and surrounding areas..

Essington cemetery, a new private cemetery which covers 26 acres near Wolverhampton, will officially open on April 11^th.. Local families have already started choosing the location for their burial plot or ashes ahead of time. Adam Fisher, from cemetery owner Respects Bereavement Services, believes that there are a number of reasons why this is proving to be a popular choice:

“Firstly, families can lock in today’s prices and avoid the big increases in cost that seem to happen every year. Secondly, they can choose the exact location of their plot(s) which you can’t do with a local authority cemetery. And, if you live outside the borough, with a private cemetery you don’t have to pay the extra fees that councils charge for ‘out of area’ residents.”

Following the removal of the final planning restriction on the Great Hallingbury site, clearance work is now commencing. The full planning permission for the roadway and futuristic chapel should be in place during May. The first phase of the cemetery is expected to open in late summer 2019.    

Now that Essington Cemetery is fully operational, the company behind this new privately owned facility is delighted to announce that it is joining the industry group that oversees all cemeteries and crematoria across the country, the Federation of Burial and Cremation Authorities. 

In what can only be described as a stealth tax, the government is introducing a new structure of probate fees in April this year which will see some people paying thousands of pounds more at a time when they face the stress of losing a loved one. At present, everyone pays the same fee of £155 if they use the services of a solicitor or £215 when they apply in person.

Under the new rules, only those with an estate of less than £50,000 will benefit as the charge will disappear completely for them. If the estate is worth more than £300,000 the probate fee will more than treble to £750, while those handling an estate of more than £500,000 will face a ten-fold increase to £2,500. There may not be many estates in our area above the maximum level of £2 million, but the £6,000 fee that they must pay will be an increase of an eye-watering 3,870% on the current model.

At a time when funeral costs are in the regulatory spotlight, this feels like another punch in the stomach for bereaved families.  

Perhaps the saddest statistic to come out of the Sun Life report is that only 1% of families they talked to admitted knowing the wishes of their deceased family member. How many people went without the funeral they wanted simply because they hadn’t discussed it with their nearest and dearest?

The answer surely is that death remains the final taboo – we keep putting it off until it’s too late and distressed relatives have to second guess the kind of send-off we might have wanted.

We are delighted to confirm that experienced local cemetery manager Catherine Averill is coming on board to manage the Essington cemetery – come and meet her on site to discuss your family’s memorial plans.