CHARGES to bury children in Caerphilly county borough have been dropped following a decision by the council’s cabinet.

This week, Caerphilly County Borough Council backed the removal of interment fees for children up to and including the age of 16.

The former council policy included free burial for stillborn children and those up to the age of one month and £145 for any children up to 16.

However a cabinet report stated that one Caerphilly case involved the burial of a baby with parents requesting a three-depth conventional grave where they could be buried at a later date.

In this case, the family were charged £2.412 split between the internment costs (£1,807 ) and Exclusive Rights of Burial costs of £605.

Members unanimously agreed that the child interment fee within any of the county borough cemeteries will be removed.

Caerphilly council’s cabinet member for community and leisure services, Cllr Nigel George, said: “The impact on families of losing a child is devastating.

“While removing the cost of the interment certainly won’t make the loss any easier, it is one less thing for families to have to worry about at such a difficult time in their lives.”

The decision to revoke child burial fees follows the campaign of Swansea East’s MP, Carolyn Harris, who faced burial fees after her son Martin’s death in 1989. Over 20 years on, she called on Chancellor Philip Hammond to abolish the child charges.

Torfaen County Borough Council recently voted to abolish child burial fees in December last year.

Leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, Cllr Keith Reynolds, added, “The well-publicised national campaign led by Carolyn Harris MP to abolish charges for the interment of children certainly provided us with the opportunity to review our own service.

“I’m pleased that members wholeheartedly backed removing these charges – it certainly is the right thing to do.”

The Exclusive Rights of Burial would still apply if chosen by the bereaved family. Families do not need to purchase this but without doing so, the grave space will remain in the ownership of the council.

As a result, families will have no right to erect any memorials and no right to any future burials on the same plot.

Islwyn’s AM, Rhianon Passmore, also commended Caerphilly CBC’s decision.

She said: “A parent burying their child is a profound trauma. Anything that can be done to alleviate this unnatural time in people’s lives is to be welcomed.

“Welsh Labour MP Carolyn Harris has shown incredible bravery in telling her experiences when she lost her eight-year-old son Martin.

“Her fearless campaigning has made us all consider what more can be done.”