BEREAVED families who want to bury retained body parts in the graves of their loved ones will not be charged for the service, councillors in Teesdale agreed yesterday.
Teesdale District Council's community services committee voted in favour of waiving any fee for relatives who want to bury previously retained body parts.
The council has so far buried two caskets containing body parts, on the request of relatives, without charge, and will continue to offer the free service.
Alf Wilkinson, technical and contract services manager for the council, said: "We are at the very end of a very long and tortuous road for many people, and so far we have had two requests for burial. We have no way of knowing how many more requests there might be, but I recommend we continue to offer the service for free."
Councillor Phil Hughes said it was a very delicate matter that should be treated with compassion.
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