HUNSLET CEMETERY CHAPEL UPDATE

When the Bereavement Service announced the closure of Hunslet Chapel, this was news to myself, but as the chapel was with in Middleton Park Ward, Cllr Mohammed Iqbal and I had not been consulted.

Despite this, we raised concerns and asked the service to relook at what would be required to reopen the site for active use.

An initial cost to upgrade the internal systems was provided at around £20,000 but the main issue was the buildings fabric and its energy efficiency, and the service said a separate assessment was needed to access the cost of that work.

These have now been returned at an estimated cost of around £340,000

This work would address building repairs, the fabric of the building,the interior decoration, and the furniture to allow the chapel to return to usage.

In light of these significant costs, the service believes there is no viable business case to bring the site back into use without significant cost, risk, and loss to the public.

I will continue conversations with the service but this huge cost is a significant barrier in the current environment