QUESTIONS about the availability of burial space in Bracknell Forest have been addressed by the council leader in response to the increasing coronavirus death toll.

Dozens of local authorities up and down the country are being forced to act quickly to deal with the surging mortality rate.

As of April 16, around 13,000 people have died after contracting the virus, with just more than 200 having died at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust hospitals.

READ MORE: The church set to miss out on £10,000 because this event was cancelled

Of the total deaths, 41 were at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust hospitals and in Reading, council chiefs are set to spend £250,000 on a temporary crematorium.

Back in January, the News reported the council was looking at other sites in Bracknell to use as cemetery space after warnings its existing burial space at Easthampstead Park Cemetery and Crematorium was running out.

Bracknell News:

But Bracknell Forest Council leader Paul Bettison quashed any potential worries about needing more burial space quickly in response to the coronavirus crisis, telling the News 90 per cent of families choose cremations for their departed loved ones instead of burials.

He said: “We have a medium-term issue over grave space.

“But getting additional space or buying or changing land from other things into grave space is not a quick job.

“It takes about three years to get all necessary clearances and approvals to use a piece of land which isn’t already designated as grave space.

READ MORE: From nails to netball: the groups donating PPE across the borough

“With cremations, there is a finite capacity with the speed at which you can deal with them.

“The average cremator, of which we have two, has an average turnaround time of two hours.

“We have two chapels and service takes half an hour.

“We and many other councils could, in theory, get through a lot more services.

“Then we can deal with the bodies after the service. But we can work longer hours every day and we would do that in order to keep up.”

In several towns and cities across the UK temporary mortuaries are being set up.

READ MORE: The tech company with a base in Bracknell that took on Donald Trump

Travel north in the Thames Valley to Milton Keynes where the Planet Ice ice rink is set to become a mortuary to store hundreds of bodies.

Down south, a temporary mortuary is being created at Poole Port for a “worst-case scenario” situation.

Cllr Bettison told the News the government has been working on mortuary capacities nationwide.

Bracknell News:

He said: “We have our own refrigerated storage at the crematorium and of course local funeral directors have refrigerated storage also.

“The government has, region by region, established what storage facilities there are and set up fallback situations so if your own storage can’t cope then there are neighbouring storage facilties you can use.”