Local residents are appalled by planning applications to build crematoria on natural greenfield sites in the green belt that separates two rural communities along Hooton Rd and School Lane in Hooton, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

The developers (Horizon and Hooton Paddocks) claim that cremation services in the Hooton area are over-stretched. But this is not true. Research by Genesis Town Planning shows that 122,661 people resided in the proposed crematoria's' catchment area in Dec 2021, ALL of whom already live within 30-minutes’ drive (cortege speed) of cremation facilities at Blacon, Landican, and Flintshire. Government guidelines suggest that one crematorium should serve a catchment of 150,000 people. Since there are already three crematoria that provide services for the Hooton catchment the service capacity for cremations in the area is sufficient for 450,000 people, which is three times more than government guidelines suggest is needed for the area. Managers at Landican, Blacon, and Flintshire crematoria have also confirmed that services at these facilities are not, and have never been overstretched as the developers claim, even during the peak of the Covid pandemic.

The data clearly shows that that there is absolutely no need for a crematorium in Hooton and that the developers' ‘need’ argument is based solely from their desire to profit from the death market. Such an enterprise cannot possibly provide sufficient justification to overturn the presumption in national planning law (or in Cheshire West and Chester’s Local Plan) that green belt land should not be developed.

If you feel you that you may be impacted by these proposed developments in any way, whether you are from the local area or not, please donate to the Hooton Crematorium Fighting Fund to help pay for the hiring of planning consultants and the ancillary costs associated with trying to ensure that these crematorium schemes are rejected at planning. Since the developers are appealing against an unfavourable decision by the Council's planning committee, it is important that we make every effort to ensure that the arguments lodged by objectors can stand up to the highest level of scrutiny.

Thank you in advance for your support!