Crematorium proposed in Gudja

An application has been filed to build a standalone crematorium on the outskirts of Gudja.

The proposal was submitted to the Planning Authority (PA) by Daniel Buhagiar in February, with the plans becoming publicly available last week.

The proposed facility would see a tree-lined building featuring a cremation hall, a witness room, a reception area, indoor and outdoor ceremony areas, a mortuary, an ash storage room, offices and parking spaces at ground level on Triq tal-Lampat.

Storage facilities, a cold room and a reservoir are planned at basement level, according to the plans available at the PA website.

The site, currently vacant, lies outside the development zone, in line with guidelines for standalone crematoria rubberstamped by Planning Minister Clint Camilleri in September.

Ian Cutajar is the project’s architect.

Buhagiar is not the first applicant to propose building a crematorium. Funeral director Johann Camilleri’s company Active Group Limited had submitted plans for a crematorium in Paola in 2021, releasing revised plans for the facility in October.

Plans were also submitted for a proposed aquamation – also known as water cremation – centre in Żabbar in 2023 by Kate and Jeremy Muscat.

Rather than fire, aquamation uses a heated mixture of water and an alkali to dissolve bodies, leaving behind only bones, and is billed as more environmentally friendly than traditional cremation.

Both applications were awaiting recommendation at the time of publication.

Cremation services were allowed to be added to existing cemeteries when Malta first legalised the practice in 2019, with standalone crematoria following under the Cremation Act approved by parliament in 2022.

The original bill, spearheaded by former parliamentary secretary Rosianne Cutajar, followed years of families wishing to cremate their loved ones being forced to go to Sicily or the UK instead, a service that can cost about €4,500.

In terms of guidelines signed by the planning minister last year, standalone crematoria cannot be built in sensitive areas including industrial zones, scheduled sites or on agricultural land and should be easily accessible.

They must meet emission standards and use the best available filtration and abatement technology, while having a specific layout and providing facilities like a mortuary, viewing room, cremation chamber and post-cremation room.

Standalone crematoria should also have a garden of remembrance with columbarium – a structure for storing funerary urns – and should not be larger than 500 square metres or taller than 7.7 metres.

The policy went through two public consultation exercises and was amended by parliament’s environment and planning committee, at which stage the government agreed with the opposition to restrict the height of crematoria and prohibit their conversion into buildings for other uses.