The man fined £160 for 'staying too long at wife's grave'

Frank Blades wasn't ready to rush away from the graveside after laying his wife Violet to rest at Hannah Park Cemetery in Worksop, Nottingham. The pensioner was told there was no rush to leave, so he stayed for an extra 20 minutes, to pay his respects and visit the graves of other family members. He was stunned to discover he had been billed £160 for it.

The shock came when he opened the bill from the undertakers. They charged him a fee of £6,000 - and then added another £160 on top for the time he had taken by his wife's graveside. The funeral directors told him this was a council fee, added when gravediggers needed to stay a bit later.

He told the Telegraph that he had initially paid up without complaint, because he was grieving and had been through too much already. However, as time passed, he grew increasingly angry. He said: "Money means nothing to me - it won't bring Violet back. But I want to warn others about the issue because when you've said goodbye to a loved-one, this is the last thing you want."
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Why was he charged?

The council explained that the fee had been charged to the undertakers, because they had arrived at the cemetery 45 minutes later than they had told the council - so the gravediggers had been forced to work beyond their contracted hours. Because the undertakers were responsible for the council's additional costs, they had been charged for it.

They said the payment wasn't to penalise the family for visiting graves, and that they were surprised that the company had decided to pass the cost on.

The undertakers, meanwhile, blamed the council. A spokesperson told the Daily Mirror: "We incurred a charge of £160 from Bassetlaw District Council due to their gravediggers working beyond their contracted hours when our client wished to visit other family graves following the funeral. As with any third-party fee that we pay on behalf of our clients this was included in our final invoice. Our funeral director remained at the cemetery with our client until he was ready to return home, for which we did not charge."

Not alone

It seems in this instance, the council and the undertaker have two different views of the incident, and the grieving family was forced to pick up the bill for the confusion.

However, it's worth being aware that you can be made to pay extra if a funeral or burial over-runs. Sadly there's a booming demand for funerals, and so crematoria and cemeteries are very busy. They cannot afford for funerals to over-run, or they risk forcing another grieving family to wait in line to say their final farewell.

We reported at the end of last year that Grimsby crematoria had introduced a £156 fine for services that over-ran. The council learned that around four funerals a week were running longer than their 40-minute time slot, and that when a funeral over-runs by ten minutes, it starts to impact the following funerals - and possibly all of the rest of the services for the rest of the day. The council hoped the fine would discourage people from over-running, and forcing other mourners to wait distressing lengths of time.

A year earlier it was North Devon Crematorium in Barnstaple that was in the news for fining mourners who overstayed. In that instance, local funeral directors were paying the £147 fine themselves in an effort to avoid distressing their clients.

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