Replacement and Maintenance of Cremators at Weeley Crematorium, Essex

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Tendring District Council awarded a contract to Facultatieve Technologies Limited for the urgent replacement and ongoing maintenance of cremators at Weeley Crematorium, Essex.

The contract, valued at £1,539,000, covers the decommissioning, modification, dismantling, removal, and disposal of two existing cremators and associated redundant plant, as well as the purchase and installation of two new cremators, and a 10-year maintenance, servicing, inspection, testing, and repair agreement for the cremators and associated equipment.

The award was made without prior publication of a call for competition due to extreme urgency brought about by unforeseeable events: the original supplier, ATI Environment UK Ltd, entered receivership in March 2020, leaving the council without a service contract and with increasingly unreliable cremators that had caught fire.

An independent engineer's report in October 2021 confirmed the plant could not be returned to safe use, and both cremators were unusable, forcing cremations to be conducted at alternative venues outside the local authority area and causing substantial loss of income.