Residents object over mortuary plans
A group of residents from the Friary Road area have collected 61 signatures on a petition against proposals to build a mortuary on their street.
In May a planning application was lodged with Southwark Council to convert a section of the ground floor at 111-113 Friary Road from a storage facility into a mortuary.
In a letter to Southwark Council, which has not yet made a decision on the plans, resident James Dean wrote: “We are extremely upset about the proposed development of turning a storage facility into a mortuary, which we feel is inappropriate for a densely populated residential area and local community.
“The change in use would have a social and psychological impact on our lives and residents in our community. Although we understand the importance of mortuaries within modern day society, having such an establishment in the middle of a dense residential area is unsettling to say the least.
“There are much better locations in light/heavy industrial areas very close to the residential areas of Peckham, so if the location is important, we believe there are plenty of options that would not impact local communities.
“Friary Road is also a main walking route for commuters and school children on a daily basis. Although death is something we all have to deal with in our lives, it’s not something we need reminding of on a daily basis, whether walking to work in the morning or back home in the evening.
“Although we don’t have children ourselves, many of our neighbours do and we don’t think it is suitable to have to explain the workings of this kind of facility to young minds.
“Although we are not experts when it comes to running a mortuary, we understand that there would be several factors involved when it comes to the machinery and industrial equipment used to store dead bodies.
“This includes refrigeration units which can create a fair amount of humming noise when chilling a corpse to the correct storage temperature 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Being in such close proximity to the gardens and rear parts of residents’ houses on Elcot and Friary road, this would be very disturbing and be a noise nuisance to neighbouring residents. It would also be another continued reminder of the fact there are deceased bodies stored in close proximity to our home.”
Southwark Council has been contacted for comment.
