Two temporary mortuaries in Bristol and Yate are being retained as the region braces for a potential second coronavirus wave and winter deaths, writes Adam Postans.

The city council has decided to maintain the place of rest at Sandy Park, which has so far not been needed, for another six months as the cost of dismantling and reassembling is the same as keeping it.

South Gloucestershire Council’s overflow morgue at its Broad Lane depot in Yate stored up to 18 bodies at a time when it was operational during the Covid-19 peak from April to July.

It was required when the number of deaths locally overwhelmed capacity at funeral directors, although none taken there were victims of the pandemic.

The temporary mortuary is effectively mothballed but is also being retained amid the prospect of future local outbreaks as the region experiences what public health chiefs describe as a “rising tide” of cases which are a “cause for concern but not alarm”.

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson said: “It is currently dormant, but can be made operational within 48 hours if required.

“Once activated it would have the capacity for 80.

“We continue to work with partners including local funeral directors to keep the situation under review so that we can respond to provide capacity if required.

“The facility will be retained in place at least until the end of winter.

“Our facility was operational from April to the end of July, during which time we had a maximum of 18 deceased people with us at any one time.

“The purpose of the facility was to provide additional capacity to help local funeral directors to manage the safe and respectful storage of the deceased.

“Our facility did not take in any Covid cases – funeral directors kept Covid cases in their own facilities, but were able to do that because we provided the extra capacity.

“Our temporary resting place is equipped to accept Covid cases if needed and we have appropriate protocols in place to ensure safe use.”

Meanwhile, Bristol director of public health Christina Gray has taken the decision to keep operational the pop-up mortuary at the local authority’s vehicle depot in Sandy Park, Brislington.

Her decision, posted on Bristol City Council’s website, said the money to maintain it until at least next March was from the Government’s ring-fenced Local Outbreak Management (Test and Trace Fund).

It said: “This will mean that body storage capacity in the city, both in existing, substantive mortuaries and at funeral director premises, can be maintained during any local outbreak or wider general increase of Covid-19-related deaths.

“Body storage capacity is an identified risk in the management of any excess death.

“Existing winter pressures put the system under strain.

“A breach of body storage capacity would present a serious challenge to the management of a local outbreak.

“The cost of dismantling and reassembling the facility would be £90,000.”

It said an alternative option not to retain it was “discounted as cost to reassemble equals the cost of maintaining the facility”.

An extension to the permanent morgue at Flax Bourton was in the early planning stages and would not be ready within six months, the decision added.

Six temperature-controlled containers covered by a large gazebo that can store 240 bodies were installed in April to cope with a worst-case scenario of a huge rise in deaths which has so far not panned out.

It increased the storage capacity for people who have died in Bristol by almost two-thirds.