AS OF March 24, funeral services at the city’s three public crematoria (Springwood, Anfield and Myrtle) will only be able to accommodate a maximum of ten people at the ceremony.

The city council’s Register Office will continue to honour religious observances for funerals.

CEREMONIES

The Register Office has also ceased conducting weddings and civil ceremonies until further notice to comply with restrictions announced by the Prime Minister.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “One of the unfortunate and sad outcomes of the Coronavirus pandemic is that the government’s new stay-at-home guidelines mean we have to change how we do funerals and weddings.

“The issue of numbers of people allowed to attend funerals has required a lot of thought because we all appreciate how emotionally sensitive these occasions are. Given the size of our crematoriums it was felt that ten people would be manageable under the social distancing guidelines and allow families to identify the most immediate relatives or closest friends of the deceased.

“In terms of weddings and civil ceremonies it’s clear a lot of couples have taken the matter into their own hands already with many postponing them to the autumn. However, for any planned that were over the next three weeks will need to be rescheduled. Our staff at the Register Office are brilliant and I know they will support couples as best they can to navigate this unfortunate situation for them.

“We know the Coronavirus is going to challenge us all, as families, individuals and organisations. The city council is trying its upmost to ensure some kind of normality can continue and judging by how people in this city are already responding be it at our school hubs, foodbanks and new volunteer programme I’ve every confidence in our collective ability to pull through.”

Couples who need to cancel or rearrange the date of their ceremony should do so online at: https://liverpool.gov.uk/contactregisterofficeor email [email protected] with their names, date and place of the ceremony and contact telephone number.