Wolverhampton Council responds after fury at 'fat tax' to bury obese in XL graves

Town hall chiefs have responded after being blasted over proposed plans to charge grieving families a 'fat tax' to bury their overweight loved ones in XL graves.

Under the proposed plans, which the council were considering but have now decided not to proceed with, people living in Wolverhampton could have faced a 20 per cent price increase for larger plots to accommodate super-sized coffins.

Danescourt cemetery in Tettenhall could have charge families £2,700 for a 6ft wide burial plot - a price hike of £450 over a standard 5ft grave. But after recieving backlash about the proposed plans the council has opted against the price hike.

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Wolverhampton City Council contacted 25 funeral directors about the proposed price hike and claimed they received just one objection.

Funeral director Ross Hickton, who runs Hickton Family Funeral Directors, branded the plan a "fat tax". He fumed: "Families in Wolverhampton and in other authorities around the country pay council and income tax. Yes, they may have to purchase a grave initially, but to be slapped with a 20 per cent payment in their time of need is horrible.

"Some may call it fat shaming. If people are growing and getting bigger, why don't cemeteries dig bigger graves in general and slightly up the fee across the board. Another point to consider here is if a mum was buried in a normal size grave and the dad needed a bigger grave when he passed. The family would have to buy a bigger grave and exhume the mum to do that. A bereaved family wouldn't want to do that.

"I completely think this is a fat tax. Not all authorities and private cemeteries do charge more, only one does have a separate section. They haven't done any public consultation, they just asked the opinion of 15 funeral directors.

"It's not really our opinion or our place to make comments or suggestions to cemeteries, it should come from the public. Fifty per cent of the time we may not have their loved one in our care at the time when we issue an estimate of cost.

"We could then realise they were obese according to Wolverhampton's guidelines, we'd then have to go back to them and say there's an additional cost. Authorities have to make a provision to bury their citizens, they pay in, so why should they have to pay more if they're slightly bigger.

"You need to use common sense - if you have someone who comes in and is a bigger size, you'd bury them on the end or make the plot bigger. It's common sense. It's just another way of councils making money."

Shocked residents also blasted the additional costs, branding it a cash-grab by the council on grieving families. Christopher Hawkes, who works in quality assurance administration, said he didn't think Wolverhampton had an obesity problem.

The 43-year-old said: "Funerals are quite expensive as it is so this just seems like an unnecessary added cost.

"I wouldn't have thought obesity was a problem here, you walk around in the Wolverhampton city centre and you don't see lots of people who are fat here - is it really that big of an issue. Would it be more labour to dig an extra foot in the ground, I don' t think so.

"But I've never dug a grave. I know we need to raise more money but I can't imagine this is the best way of doing it. If you're obese at the end of your life I imagine you'll have some extra bills to pay anyway, so this just seems like a pointless added expense."

Rosemarie McLaren said she felt the move was "discrimination" towards obese people, branding it "not acceptable". She said: "Someone like me who's a bit bigger, is going to be charged because I'm fat."

Terry Tennens, CEO of funeral directors SAIF, said: "While the 20 per cent fat tax is bad enough in terms of how it discriminates against people who require a larger grave, it's the plans for a separate area for bariatric coffins that are causing the most concern.

"What this means practically is that families who have planned for loved ones - for instance mum and dad - to share a grave, might now need to face the prospect of exhuming one parent to reunite them with the surviving parent when they die. This is not a conversation funeral directors really want to be having with families when they are already distressed. It has the potential to cause immense upset."

He added: "Research among our members found that no more than a quarter of councils have higher fees for larger graves and 95 per cent don't have separate areas for bariatric burials. We need to send a signal to councils that this is discriminatory and cannot become commonplace. We hope Wolverhampton has not set a precedent and urge others thinking of doing the same to reconsider their plans."

Since the backlash a City of Wolverhampton Council spokesperson said: "No formal decision was ever taken on plans to charge more for larger burial plots. This is a common practice taken by councils around the country where higher charges cover the costs of providing a larger plot. However, while under consideration, we have decided not to proceed with the plans."