A £4M CREMATORIUM is due to open next week.

The privately owned Kirkleatham Memorial Park and Crematorium near Yearby, in the Redcar area, will open its doors on Monday, January 6.

Middlesbrough Borough Council has warned that its Teesside Crematorium in Acklam, could lost about £650,000 in lost business if people across east Cleveland switch to the new businesses in large numbers.

It is expected the crematorium will hold about 1,100 cremations a year with five years compared to the 3,500 currently performed in Middlesbrough. Teesside Crematorium in Middlesbrough also holds about 3,500 burials.

Howard Hodgson, chairman of Memoria, which will run the new site, said: “Teesside Crematorum is the second busiest in the UK and there’s no reason we can’t co-exist. There’s enough give in the market.”

He said that about 154,000 people live closer to the Kirkleatham Memorial Park (KMP) than any other crematorium. Of those 107,000 previously lived more than 30 minutes away from their nearest crematorium but will now identify KMP as their nearest facility.

Services can be held in any denomination or can be non-religious. The chapel seats 96 people and can hold 200. KMP is set in seven acres of parkland and will contain a traditional burial section. Four jobs have been created.