Stockport Council has named the firm to install new cremators at Buxton Road, part of a £14m, four-phase refurbishment planned to keep funerals running.
Stockport Council has appointed a specialist firm to replace the three cremators at Stockport Crematorium on Buxton Road. The machines are near the end of their working life, and the council has been patching them up since 2024.
The appointment is one of three officer decisions on the crematorium that the council published last week. Together they show the first stage of a £14m refurbishment of the whole site getting under way.
What was decided
The three decision records were all signed off earlier in the year but only appeared on the council’s website between 22 and 24 September:
- Facultatieve Technologies Ltd will design, supply and manage “the full installation of new cremators”. The decision was taken on 4 March 2026. (Decision ODDCE1049)
- Urban Fabric Architects is the heritage specialist architect for the refurbishment. The decision was taken on 11 March 2026. (Decision ODDCE1037)
- Land Survey Solutions Ltd will carry out a CCTV survey of the site’s drains. The decision was taken on 23 February 2026. (Decision ODDCE1043)
The value of each contract is not public. Each record says the report behind it “contained information ‘not for publication’” and went only to the officer taking the decision.
Why the cremators need replacing
The crematorium opened in 1936. It handles around 3,000 cremations a year, according to the business case report councillors considered in June 2025.
That report set out the problem plainly. Cabinet had been told in March 2023 that all three cremators were “nearing the end of their useful operating capacity”. Two had interim repairs in 2024 to keep them going. By March 2025 the third also needed repair work.
The report named the biggest risk to the whole service as a cremator failing before the new ones arrive. “The loss of one cremator would have a significant impact on service capacity and delivery,” it said.
The council also wants the replacements to reduce the site’s reliance on gas. That aim was recorded when Cabinet first looked at the cremators in 2023.
The £14m plan
Cabinet approved the recommended option on 24 June 2025. It also gave officers approval to place orders for the new cremators early, so the work could be “brought forward at pace”.
The approved option includes:
- replacing all three cremators, with a new abatement system to clean the emissions
- an extension to the crematorium building to house them
- repairs, redecoration and asbestos removal across the Rowan Chapel, the Cypress Chapel, the North Chapel, the office and the apartment
- new doors and windows, and a full replacement of heating, electrics and plumbing
- a new car park for 30 cars to the east of the site
- new drainage and extra planting
The report estimated the cost at about £14m, paid for by borrowing. The council expects to repay it from memorial income, more cremations and lower maintenance bills. It forecast a shortfall in the early years, of about £280,000 in year one rising to £500,000 in year four, with the scheme moving into surplus from year twelve.
Will funerals carry on?
Yes, according to the plan. The work is split into four phases over three to four years specifically “to ensure that the site and service remains fully operational for the duration of the refurbishment”.
The cremators and the two working chapels come first. The business case programmed the extension and the installation of the new cremators for the third quarter of 2026, which ends on Wednesday.
None of the decision records published last week gives a revised date.
What it means for you
- If you are arranging a funeral, bookings at Buxton Road carry on as normal. The council runs the service itself; it took it back in house in early 2024 after two decades of it being run under contract, first by the Co-op and then by Dignity. Fees and booking details are on the council’s burials and cremations page.
- If you visit graves or memorials at Buxton Road, expect building work around the crematorium and chapels over the next few years, with the car park and the North Chapel coming last.
- If you want a say, the business case promised workshops, public engagement days and questionnaires. Those were to include the Friends of Stockport Cemeteries, faith groups and funeral directors. We have not found any dates published for them yet.
Council decisions like these appear weeks or months after they are taken. We follow them in our planning and council news.
Sources: Stockport Council officer decision records ODDCE1037, ODDCE1043 and ODDCE1049, published 22 to 24 September 2026; Cabinet decision and business case report, 24 June 2025.
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