On Friday 31 July East Cambs District Council met behind closed doors to decide to abandon plans to re-open Mepal Outdoor Centre and instead build a crematorium on the site. I posted further details a couple of weeks later showing that the plans had been worked on in secret for more than 18 months and more than £50,000 had already been spent. Since that time the secrecy has continued and the expenditure mounted.

The council issued a press release after the meeting in July revealing the plans for the first time https://www.eastcambs.gov.uk/press/new-plans-land-previous-outdoor-centre-mepal. However many details were withheld and attempts by residents to obtain more details through Freedom of Information requests have been refused.

The council’s payment records indicated that numerous surveys and assessments had been commissioned including;

• A groundwater risk assessment
• A topographic survey
• Various winter and breeding bird surveys
• Reptile and botanical surveys

A Freedom of Information request FOI202021-170 to make these reports public was submitted in August. It was refused on the grounds that the council already had a plan to make these reports public when it submits the planning application but that is not due to happen until November. Given the council already has these reports, it seems odd that it will continue to keep these secret for so long if they are eventually to be made public.

As a district councillor I asked if councillors could be provided with copies of these surveys and reports even if they aren’t made public. We are elected to make decisions on behalf of the local residents who we represent and surely it is only right that we have all the available information when we make those decisions? Instead I was told that I could not see these reports but would have to wait until a councillors’ briefing which was anticipated to take place in early October. That briefing has not happened.

Another Freedom of Information request FOI/EIR 20/21-206 asked for details of the survey of funeral directors conducted by the council to assess the demand for cremations. The crematorium is controversial because it is just 12 minutes’ drive from the existing Fenland Crematorium with many arguing it is the wrong location and would be in direct competition with the existing facility. Again the council has refused to make the details of this survey public.

Meanwhile the expenditure continues to mount. In my previous blog post in August I had revealed that between January 2019 and June 2020 the council made payments of £53,171.28 towards its crematorium plan. Further expenditure for July and August has now been published as required by national rules governing council transparency. Between January 2019 and August this year the total payments towards the crematorium plan have now reached £80,885.78.

The councillors in charge of the district council are of course entitled to put forward whatever proposals they like. But that should be done in an open and transparent way, with information made available to opposition councillors and council residents, and with decisions debated and decided in public. Is it really acceptable to keep so much information secret for so long and to make so many important decisions behind closed doors?

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