Publication of Crematorium Error Report Delayed by Six Months

Published on: 13 Aug, 2021
Updated on: 15 Aug, 2021

By Hugh Coakley

GBC have said they will be publishing the external report into the crematorium chimney error in November, 12 months after the report was said to have been commissioned.

But they have not said whether the internal report into the issue will be published.

Guildford Crematorium opened in 2019. Photo by Simon Kennedy.

See Council Ducks Questions On Crematorium Error and ‘Transparent’ Council Blocks FOI Request On Crematorium Chimney Error Report.

David Harvey, one of the two members of the public who had pointed out the chimney height error in 2017, said “At least you have a publication date out of them – that is more than I have been able to achieve.”

He said GBC had told him a draft of the external report by an independent expert had been received by GBC in April.

The Dragon had asked for an update on the status of the external report and requested a date for publication of both the internal and external reports.

Cllr James Steel, lead for Environment, responded with: “The Guildford Crematorium – Air Quality Assessment External Audit will be published along with a covering report at our Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on Tuesday 9 November. The agenda and papers for this meeting will be available by Monday 1 November.”

When asked again for a date of publication of the internal report and why it would take more than six months for publication of the external report, Cllr Steel did not answer all questions but said: “We will review our decision on the publication of our internal report when we receive the final external audit.”

Guildford crematorium chimney increased by 0.9m because of an error in calculations.

The crematorium was opened in December 2019 and won two awards at the Guildford Society 2020 Design Awards.

A design error forced Guildford Borough Council into a belated redesign of the chimney at the new crematorium, increasing the height from 8.1m to 9m in what one architect called a “crude engineering solution”.

Questions have been raised whether the error would have affected the award of the contract to the crematorium supplier, Faculatieve Technologies.

Responses to Publication of Crematorium Error Report Delayed by Six Months

Anthony Mallard Reply

August 15, 2021 at 11:59 am

Not surprisingly, the long grass into which this report was kicked has grown longer over the summer and a further delay in its publication has been announced.

Is it possible, as is sometimes the case in local and national governments, that an ostensible final report has been returned to the writer, in order to have the language of any general or specific criticisms softened, making it easier to frame a response? Not, I suggest, that this is a subterfuge being adopted in this case, of course.