You know times are hard when you have to heat your pool with the dead.
A cash-strapped council in the United Kingdom has come under fire for its plan to use the heat from a nearby crematorium to heat a public swimming pool, according to a report in the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
The excess heat generated by the incinerator at the Borough Of Redditch Cemeteries & Crematorium in Worcestershire would be used to warm the water for swimmers at the nearby Abbey Stadium Sports Centre -- the plan will reportedly cut £14,500 each year (slightly more than $23,000) off the council’s heating bills.
Aside from saving cash, council leaders argue that the plan is a greener way of powering the sports center. Currently, heat from the incinerators (which reaches 800 degrees centigrade) is lost into the atmosphere, the article says.
“I’d much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky,” Council leader Carole Gandy told the newspaper.
In an effort to scale back its national debt, late last year the United Kingdom announced the most drastic budget cuts in living memory -- including sharp cuts in public sector funding -- that surpass measures taken by other advanced economies. Prime Minister David Cameron has said the nation is facing an “age of austerity” that will mean tough economic choices for most Britons, but some local residents in the Borough Of Redditch seem uncertain those choices extend to heating their local pool by burning cadavers.
Simon Thomas, of Thomas Brothers Funeral Directors, told the paper: ”I don’t know how comfortable people would feel about the swimming pool being heated due to the death of a loved one, I think it’s a bit strange and eerie.”
“I’m not comfortable with it at all and I think trying to save money due to the death of someone's family member or friend is a bit sick,” he added. “I think it will cause uproar and may even put people off using the facilities which would lose the council money.”