Building work on temporary Lancashire morgue for up to 1,000 people complete

The temporary facility, which has been built at an aircraft hangar at BAE Systems Warton by the county council, was built in less than a week.

It will be ready to receive the dead from Monday (April 20) after final checks are completed.

The facility is able to house 1,000 deceased from the Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool areas, but it is hoped that it will not be necessary to use it to its full capacity.

County Coun Geoff Driver, leader of the county council, said: “This facility means we can ensure that the deceased can be treated with dignity and respect before they are laid to rest.

"This was a challenging and quite upsetting project for all those who have been working on it and I would like to give my thanks to the Lancashire County Council staff and our partners who have worked night and day to get this facility ready in less than a week.”

The dead will be taken by funeral directors to the facility, where they can remain until being taken to their funeral and final resting point. Relatives will not be able to visit the morgue.

Dey Supt Andy Cribbin, who is coordinating the Local Resilience Forum activity for the management of deaths, said: “There has been an enormous amount of work undertaken in a very short time to get this facility ready to receive the deceased, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have been involved.

"We hope never to use the facility but if we have to, bereaved families can be reassured that their loved ones will be treated with the utmost dignity and respect.”