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Council U-turn on non-Muslim Saturday burials
SHEFFIELD Council has announced a dramatic U-turn after a policy allowing only Muslim burials to take place at the weekend caused outrage.
The Star reported on Wednesday how Jean Maltby from Greenhill was not allowed to bury her step-father Harold 'Charlie' Lemaire on a Saturday because the council only offered the service to Muslims at the weekend.
Now the heads of Sheffield's two leading parties have written to council officers about their disappointment and concern.
The council has admitted they "got it wrong" and is working out a new policy to offer people of every faith living in the city the same service.
But it comes too late for Ms Maltby and her family, who had to hold the funeral for Mr Lemaire, a 75-year-old retired steel erector from Woodseats, yesterday.
Mrs Maltby said she was pleased by the U-turn after the council's flat refusal to consider her request.
She added: "It was unfair and unjust I just wanted the same service as anyone else in the community. Their stubborn refusal made me really angry, if they had been more co-operative I wouldn't have needed to go to The Star."
The letter from Sheffield Council leader Coun Paul Scriven and Sheffield Labour Group leader Coun Jan Wilson said: "We would like to put on the record our shared disappointment and shock upon learning a grieving Sheffield family have been told they can't bury a family member on a Saturday because he was not a Muslim.
"We will be speaking to council officers to sort this out as a matter of urgency, to make sure everyone can access these services equally, whatever community they are from, so no other grieving family has to go through this."
The council has apologised "unreservedly" to Ms Maltby and the rest of the family.
A statement from Coun Shaffaq Mohammed, cabinet member for climate change and local environment, said: "The council would like to unreservedly apologise to Mr Lemaire's family for the distress that has been caused.
"After looking into this issue we can now see we got it wrong and this particular policy needs to change.
"We should be offering the same burial service to every citizen of Sheffield regardless of faith.
"The council is urgently working on bringing forward a new policy that will allow a weekend burial service to be offered to everyone on an equitable basis. Once again, we apologise for any distress caused."
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
