Because Bath & North East Somerset recognises that bereavement means you have to make decisions at a time when you are least prepared to deal with them emotionally, these pages are designed to provide you with the following:
Clear instructions (in writing) of whether you would prefer to be buried or cremated may be helpful to your next of kin or executor when you die. Such instructions are not binding in law, so you are not committing them to something they may not be able to carry out. But it will reassure them if they are doubtful and give guidance if they are completely unaware of what you would have liked.
Bereavement Services is a service within Neighbourhood Services.
All burials and cremations are carried out in accordance with the Code of Cremation Practice. We have also adopted the Charter for the Bereaved as our standard.
Bereavement Services has been the proud owner of the Investor in People (IiP) award since 1996, being continuously reassessed as achieving the standard. Following a successful application for this award by the whole of Environmental Services this year (2009), Bereavement Service's individual award will come under this umbrella in the future.
In 2008 Bereavement Services applied to be assessed for a Green Flag award for Haycombe Cemetery - a scheme similar to that of Blue Flags for beaches. It was successful, as was Keynsham Memorial Park, bringing the total Green Flag awards within the Bath and North East Somerset area to three - Royal Victoria Park gaining the award for the sixth time in that year. All three were again successful in 2009 and hope to continue into 2010.
Bereavement Services was one of the services assessed as part of this year's successful bid to retain the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) award for Environmental Services for a second year, gaining really complimentary feedback from the assessor during the process.
(To make a complaint or service request see Haycombe Crematorium - How to contact us.)
If you have any questions not answered in these web pages please contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium office direct - for opening times see link above.
An archaic meaning of "bereave" is "to take an item (something valuable or necessary), usually through force".