Issue details

The Bereavement Services 5-year Capital investment programme was approved by cabinet back in July 2021.

Initially a 5-year programme, following a review of all Council Capital the programme has been reprofiled to 3 years, effectively making 2023/24 the final year of investment under Bereavement Service’s ownership.

Going forward for future years any investment projects that requires capital monies will either be funded by Corporate Landlord from their capital programme or be subject to a separate bidding process via the Councils Capital Delivery Board.

In 2022/23 several projects were unable to be fully completed, despite having been designed and ready to go and in some cases initial phases started.  This resulted in an underspend of £145k, which has been requested to rollover into 2023/24.

The proposed programme for the next financial year is summarised in the table below and is based on three principles: (i) Condition works to address or prevent the deterioration of the asset.  (ii) Health and safety work to address legislative requirements and ensure that assets remain safe for use and (iii) Investment to provide improvements to the facility.

In addition, and separate to this decision there is also a strategic project forming to identify future burial provision within the North of Kirklees.  To date officers have engaged with the Bereavement forum with some initial discussions.  In addition, funding opportunities have also been sought through discussions with the Councils Capital Delivery Board, which would be subject to a separate report specific to future Council Capital funding.