Extra funding has been committed for the second time in six months to ensure a Somerset crematorium will remain fit for purpose in the coming decades.

South Somerset District Council is the public body responsible for Yeovil Crematorium on Bunford Lane in Yeovil, which currently averages 1,700 cremations per year.

The council has aimed for several years to upgrade the facility, which was completed in 1970, to provide more room for mourners and to enable the building to handle more services as a result.

Its district executive committee voted in February to provide an additional £800,000 towards upgrading the facility in light of high inflation within the construction industry and repairs carried out before the coronavirus pandemic.

The same committee agreed on Thursday morning (August 4) to provide a further £185,400 to ensure the project can be successfully completed – with local councillors warning any further increases in costs may be difficult to fund.

The original decision to refurbish and upgrade the facility was taken back in June 2017, with the council intending to construct a new chapel, waiting room, a smaller secondary chapel and improved parking facilities, as well as replacing the existing cremators.

A total of £4m was originally allocated to this project, which was increased to £4.921m in August 2019 following the initial tenders being received and then to £5.721m once the additional funding was approved in February 2022.

Of the £185,400 of further funding being committed to the project (bringing the total expenditure to £5,906,400), £165,000 will come from the district council, with the parish council providing the remaining £20,400.

Robert Orrett, the council’s commercial property, land and development manager, told the district executive committee in Yeovil on Thursday (August 4) that the combination of Brexit, the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine had created “extreme uncertainty” and contributed to rising inflation.

He said: “Everyone will be aware of the spike in inflation, which was on the radar but wasn’t understood to be anything like as severe then [in February] as it now is.

“For this particular project, we’re at the stage where we’re effectively ready to go to site and we have the benefit of updated costings from the contractor.

“We have the highest level of certainty around these costs that we could have, but the cost is considerably higher than we thought it would be back in February.

“We were shocked by what happened to inflation this year. The forecast on the radio this morning from Resolution is that it’s going to go up by more and peak later.”

“For this very long delivery, which is needed to keep the crematorium working while the building project is going on, the contractor will not bear cost increases during the contract – and commercially, one can understand that.”

To prevent further cost increases, a number of changes have been made to the plans, with the existing chapel of remembrance not being demolished and the planned changes to the offices and toilets area no longer going ahead.