New £9.5m mortuary to get extra funding for third time

Work has begun on the purpose-built facility which is due to open in March

A new public mortuary will get more funding, on top of the £9.5m already allocated, following a cabinet meeting.

The facility, on council-owned land in Northampton, aimed to consolidate services, reducing the need for people to travel to multiple locations.

Construction of the site at Riverside Business Park began earlier this year, and it was expected to open in March 2026.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the project's costs had already increased twice before.

West Northamptonshire Council's cabinet said the extra budget would allow it to "make best use of the facilities" and "meet the needs" of residents. The amount of additional funding, this time, has not been disclosed.

Costs initially increased by £500,000 after the main mortuary building needed to be repositioned at the site to comply with planning requirements in August 2024. This also caused a six-month delay.

Then the scope of the project also increased later that year to include the provision of a body storage and transport service for Kettering General Hospital and Northampton General Hospital, with additional funding of £750,000 approved by the cabinet in November 2024.

The source of the extra financial investment has not been disclosed, and the discussion about funding during the cabinet meeting was held in private.

However, the council said the project had reached a "critical stage" and it was "imperative" that building works were completed.

The new purpose-built mortuary is designed for both traditional post-mortems and those involving scanners, which reduce the impact on the bodies.

There will also be family viewing and identification facilities.

The site will have the capacity to create additional temporary body storage if there is an incident involving mass fatalities.