Swansea council to scrap child burial fees after campaign

Swansea council has vowed to scrap child burial fees after an emotional campaign by an MP who had to take out a loan to bury her son.

Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris struggled to afford funeral costs after her eight-year-old son Martin was killed in a road accident in 1989.

Ms Harris has called for the UK government to set aside £10m to automatically cover costs.

Council leader Rob Stewart said the authority would do the right thing.

The fees payable for burial and cremations, on top of additional funeral costs, vary, with no charge in Conwy but a fee of up to £200 in Gwynedd.

Mr Stewart said the council would scrap the charge for parents when it sets its budget in February, adding the cost was small and could be easily absorbed.

"When you are in that position you are just focused on doing the right thing for your child and giving them the funeral they would want," he said.

"We just knew it was very much the right thing to do."

Ms Harris - who only managed to pay for her child's funeral after a whip-round from friends and taking out a loan - welcomed the move but said not all local authorities would be able to scrap the fees.

The Labour MP said the funeral fund could be used by cash-strapped councils.

"Local authorities budgets have been slashed and they still have to keep cemeteries and crematoriums open, they still have to tend graves and have grave diggers," said Ms Harris.

"These people are working class people who need to be paid, so I'm not asking local authorities to do this."

The Department for Work and Pensions previously said it was "modernising bereavement benefits, introducing a simpler and fairer scheme that will better assist people in what can be an extremely difficult time".