A petition urging BCP Council to install a cremator at Poole crematorium has amassed nearly 3,000 signatures.
While the facility is being upgraded at a cost of more than £500,000 for Phase 1, its old cremators won’t be replaced.
The petition was launched by resident Tony Reeves who believes the council is prioritising Bournemouth over Poole.
Nick Douch, managing director of Douch Family Funeral Directors, which has seven branches, has signed the petition and is urging others to add their names.
He said: “With no cremators at Poole, deceased bodies have to be shuttled to Bournemouth.
“Bournemouth already has the second busiest crematorium in the country so not to replace Poole’s cremators seems bizarre, especially when given the amount they are spending on it.
“Relatives want their loved ones cremated in the place where the service is held – they don’t like the idea of them being driven across the conurbation.
“Without a cremator it would be wrong to describe the Poole facility as a crematorium. It is just a service chapel.
“For the money they are spending they could easily install a cremator and we are confused as to why they aren’t.
“The Poole facility serves a wide area of more than 250,000 people, and we are now arranging funerals further afield where there are cremators.
“I would urge everyone to sign the petition and lobby the council to change its decision on downgrading Poole crematorium to a service chapel.”
Douch Family Funeral Directors has seven branches across east Dorset in Wimborne, Ferndown, Corfe Mullen, Blandford, Parkstone, Wareham and Swanage.
So far 2,744 have signed the petition that can be found through this link: https://savepoolecrem.org/