It is the policy of Allerdale Borough Council to offer high standards of care, consideration a wide variety of options and real choices that are available to every one.
The need for high standards and meaningful choices is a view that Allerdale Borough Council share with the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM). The Institute is the professional organisation representing local government officers involved in the provision of cemetery related services.

The Charter for the bereaved was created by the ICCM in response to the Citizens charter initiative. It was created with the intention of generating interest as well as educating people on bereavement matters. The intention was also to improve and update cemetery services and related aspects of bereavement.

Allerdale has now adopted this Charter.

The charter defines the rights of every individual who experiences bereavement.
The authority must offer the bereaved 35 basic 'rights' relating to their service. These 'rights' include burial procedure, grave choice, maintenance of grounds and grave digging, funerals' without a funeral director and environmental issues.
The charter identifies targets for the council to continuously improve their service for the bereaved.
The guiding principal for burial services within the charter is that all burial facilities should be managed with competence and efficiency to ensure the entire bereavement experience occurs without error or insensitivity. This also includes meeting the religious, secular, ethnic and cultural needs of the bereaved.

The purpose of the Charter is to improve funerals and we would like to take your views into account. Anything that interests you or leaves you with a feeling of disquiet is important to us.