Douglas City Council has agreed plans to introduce charges for webcasts and recordings of funerals at the Crematorium.

At a recent Executive Committee meeting, members considered a report from the Head of Parks seeking approval for fees and charges covering new funeral services, including webcasting, recordings and visual tributes.

At present, the council provides a webcasting service free of charge, but a planned upgrade means additional revenue will be needed to cover costs.

The report presented to the committee states: ‘As part of the media upgrade, the service will transition to the new provider’s system and internal webcasting and recording will no longer be facilitated. As a result, it will no longer be viable to offer this service free of charge.

‘To cover costs incurred by the council, it is proposed to introduce a fee of £90 for webcasting. Recordings will be available for an additional nominal fee, while visual tributes displayed during services will be available at a proposed cost ranging from £20 to £28.

‘This approach, and charging for such additional services at funerals, is standard practice in the UK and approval was sought to introduce these new fees and charges at the Crematorium.’

Some councillors raised concerns about the affordability and accessibility of the webcasting service, including whether a lower-cost or basic option might be possible.

The committee agreed that the revised charging structure should initially operate on a trial basis, with a review to be carried out as part of the next budget-setting process.

Members resolved that the new charges should be introduced to ‘ensure full recovery of supplier costs and associated service delivery overheads’, while also ‘supporting the long-term financial sustainability of the service’.

They also agreed that the fee structure should be reviewed once data on the uptake of the services becomes available.