… to object to the funeral parlour unloading body bags at the end of my street?

[CoralQuoter]

There’s a row of shops at right angles to our street, where the back entrances face onto a small cut through road and the back alley between rows of houses. One of these shops is a funeral parlour, which has recently expanded. They now park two massive hearses in the shared alley, and frequently ask us to move our car so they can fit the hearse through the narrow road if we park there (it’s a public street and the only way we can access the back of our house) They also load and unload body bags (with bodies in!) from the back of the private ambulance in the public street, and my DD4 asks what’s in the bags, which is… not a fun chat? My DS11 hates it and won’t walk round the back as its “too creepy”. Not only this, but they leave bags of rubbish out on the street which the seagulls get into and encourage rats. I’ve tried complaining to the council, but they say the only thing they can do is “register my complaint” with the bin collection service. AIBU to think a small terrace shop isn’t the place to run a funeral parlour from, especially if there’s no room to privately unload body bags?

I live opposite a funeral parlour. I have never seen any bodies unloaded, and they’re quiet, clean and professional (albeit fond of popping the occasional flyer through the door, which makes me think I look older or more peaky than I am)

I agree this is unusual practice and I wouldn't like to think of my deceased loved one being unloaded in full view nor would I want to see it day in and day out, I would agree like you that this would usually be done in a sort of sheltered space where it's not visible. I understand bodies get removed from houses etc but there is a sort of protocol to that, someone leaving their own home

It's not ideal but sadly dead bodies have to be moved and not every funeral set

What’s the difference between a body bag and a coffin? I wouldn’t be even slightly bothered.

It's not ideal but sadly dead bodies have to be moved and not every funeral has a private car park or is eg on an industrial estate. They tend to be within communities. So if you live near one I think you have to accept that bodies come & go. How you explain it to DC depends on your belief / religion etc

I would not want my loved ones to be moved in full view of an entire street, even in a body bag.

The funeral parlour we used for my mum had a garage that private ambulances drive in to.

Death is a natural part of life but I don’t want to see body bags every day.

I would speak to my local MP / counsellor about the practices and about the rubbish. Neither is ok.

I would not want my loved ones to be moved in full view of an entire street, even in a body bag.

You’ve never been to a funeral or seen a hearse on its way to the crematorium?

Yes I have. I think that’s quite different to a bag?

People expect to see coffins. Not body bags.

Again I think that depends on your beliefs. Some would find it disrespectful and others not.
I work in an industry where I see body bags. I find them sad as they are the first sign of definite death and often before the family know, Coffins can bd grand and funerals a celebration.

At the undertakers near me, the bodies go in from the private ambulance through the same front garage door that they're loaded into the hearse from. It doesn't even have a back alley.

I have no idea who they were, either on their way in or out.

Being asked to move my car repeatedly would annoy me.
Film what's going on.
The litter, the body bags in full view.
Note that they have access problems.
I would not like that at the end of my road and my children seeing it.
I can understand your son's disquiet.

Even though I can see this garage door from my front room, I've never seen an actual body bag, BTW.

Seriously, some comments. Let's just get the hospitals to start whizzing all the dead bodies out the front entrance in in bored daylight like a carousel of body bags, past the visitors, kids, I mean, you've won me over. Why don't they do that? I wonder.

They stay in hospital mortuaries or care homes etc until office hours as a general rule but yes some take in bodies out of hours.

Body bag - used to transport a (probably) very recently deceased person to a funeral parlour or a morgue.

Coffin - maybe chosen by the deceased in advance, or their loved ones with care. The last resting place. Loved ones may have had the opportunity to view the body which will have had some care and attention given to it, as part of the process of grief. Pallbearers will respectfully carry their loved one to a funeral and maybe then to a grave.

Sure, it's steeped in ritual (a dead person is a dead person) but I think those rituals are a very important part of grief and provide comfort and more spiritual or religious memories.

Would you really be OK being presented with your loved one in a body bag?

It's not ideal but those professions whose jobs deal with body bags are generally very respectful of mortality and death. It hits you every time you seal or see one

My kids have hated it on the couple of times our holiday accommodation has overlooked a graveyard!

Best not ask 😩

I have lived in many different sized communities from large towns, central London even in outback Australia and nowhere I have seen this occur. There is a funeral palour down the road from me and we never see it. I have also worked in acute and community hospitals for 15+ years and it is always done discreetly.

Totally agree.

There was an abattoir at the end of our road growing up.

They often had the doors open as I would go to school. I would see rows of dead hanging carcasses.

Its just part of life

It seems like they’re using what’s effectively a service road to the back of their business, not doing a conga past McDonalds & Superdrug. How far are they wheeling these body bags & how often?

There's a big difference between a body bag and a coffin. The issue isn't the funeral parlor's existence, it's the expansion and lack of planning on how they are going to empty and turn their new vehicles. The OP has happily coexisted with them and they have changed not the OP.
Regarding the bins, decent people would realise there's a problem and fix it.

But surely the job of a bodybag is to shield the deceased from view ? It is like being offended at a fully clothed person, because they are naked underneath!

That might be how you see it, but surely you can acknowledge that many (most?) people are more upset at seeing a body bag than a coffin.
If we moved towards burying people or viewing them in the funeral home in a body bag then opinions would change, but as it stands, most people do not regard body bags as a respectful way to lay our loved ones to rest.

Film what's going on ...The litter, the body bags in full view

Yes, and providing of course there's no way of identifying the deceased, share it widely in the local area

Hopefully the almost inevitable distaste will lead to them being forced to find more suitable premises for their "expansion" and then it's problem solved