Opposition councillors have accused East Cambridgeshire District Council of attempting to create a crematorium “cartel” with its plans for the Mepal Bereavement Centre.

The authority has agreed to use £9.06million of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding to pay for the project that it hopes to start building next year.

Members of the Liberal Democrat opposition said the public was not supportive of the plans to build the new crematorium, and argued the proposal to work with another authority owned crematorium would essentially be creating a “cartel”.

However, the leader of the district council, Councillor Anna Bailey (Conservative), hit back at these accusations calling them “disrespectful” and said the “community deserves” the proposed facility.

The new crematorium is planned to be built in Mepal off Ireton’s Way at a former outdoor activity facility.

The district council has said the bereavement centre will include the crematorium, natural burial areas, a pet cemetery, modular function rooms, as well as a chapel.

The authority agreed at a finance and assets committee this week (January 25) to use £9.06million of CIL funding to pay for the facility.

Officers said the new crematorium would help provide for the additional capacity they said was needed at “peak times”.

However, a report presented to the committee admitted there would be an impact on existing crematoriums in the county, in particular a facility in March.

It added that the crematorium owned by Huntingdon Town Council would also be impacted, but said this impact would be “far less”.

Officers at the district council also said the authority planned to work with the town council to “mitigate unnecessary competition”.

Councillor Lorna Dupré argued this was essentially proposing to create a “cartel”.

She said: “It is clear from the public papers that this works financially, if it works at all, only on the basis of launching a price war with its nearest competitor.

“I am rather surprised at the openness in the public paper of the suggestion that this council will work on its facility with the facility run by Huntingdon Town Council in what can only be described from what we have heard, there is a word for that, that is a cartel.

“I have looked up the definition of a cartel and it is ‘a combination of independent commercial or industrial enterprises designed to limit competition or fix prices’, and that is exactly what is being described in public in this report. That seems to me to be quite extraordinary.”

Cllr Dupré also accused the district council leadership of “secrecy” in preparing the plans, highlighting that it had been taken off the authority’s corporate plan for two years when she said the plans were worked on in “secret”.

She also claimed the crematorium was planned to be used as a “laundrette” to “take developer contributions that have been meant to improve facilities in local communities and laundromat them into ready cash to subsidise the council tax”.

Opposition councillors also raised concerns about the CIL money being used to pay for the crematorium, when they said it could be used for other community projects.

Councillor John Trapp (Liberal Democrat) said CIL money should be spent on other types of community projects saying people had asked for things such as a splash pool in Ely, or a BMX track.

Councillor Mark Inskip (Liberal Democrat) also argued there was not public support for the plans when he said “every indication we have had is that it is not wanted from the public”.

Councillor Anna Bailey (Conservative) accused the opposition councillors of being “disrespectful”.

She said the project had been in the works for a number of years and said it had only been worked on “behind the scenes” following expert advice.

Cllr Bailey also pushed back on the claims that the bereavement centre was unpopular with the public.

She said the consultation on the plans had only been responded to by 188 people out of the district’s 90,000.

Cllr Bailey said the district council had spent “millions” of CIL funding on other projects, including community centres, cycle routes, footbridges, schools and learning hubs, and sports facilities.

She said there were still “significant sums” set aside that could be spent on other community infrastructure.

Cllr Bailey said: “This is a designated county wildlife site and we do have the opportunity to keep it open for low impact leisure purposes.

“We have taken a long time to work up this full business case with industry experts.

“To be clear here the finances are not the motivation, it is obviously comforting to see a positive business case that means it is lower risk for the council, but this is about offering a really great service at lower cost in a beautiful setting. Our community deserves this facility.”