A CARDIGAN councillor has described as “very disturbing” and “immoral” the sudden death call-out protocol being put in place by Ceredigion County Council.

Cardigan’s deputy mayor Cllr Shan Williams raised the issue at a meeting of the town council and has written a letter expressing her reservations over the plan.

In her strongly–worded letter to the county council, she wrote: “During a conversation with a local undertaker, I was informed that Ceredigion Council are now accepting tenders from undertakers to be the ‘on duty firm for sudden death call-out’ in Ceredigion.

“The whole ethos of other people deciding by tender, which undertaker will attend a sudden death I find very disturbing. If this is the case, surely it is totally unethical. There are some things in life and sadly death that should not be open to ‘best tender’.

“As a mother of a child with congenital heart disease, I have faced the prospect of losing my son on many occasions. The thought of a random, best tender undertaker taking my child at this time would have been cruel and totally unacceptable.

“Please correct me if I am wrong, but I understand this is not the case in Carmarthenshire or Pembrokeshire, if the family have no preference, they have a rota system.

“Tenders and making money out of the trauma of sudden death and treating the people of Ceredigion in this manner, at their most vulnerable time, is in my opinion particularly immoral.

“Please, for the sake of the families that will have to endure the shock and deepest pain of sudden death, create a fair system that allows the bereaved, when appropriate to have a choice.”

Cllr Williams added: “You could be giving your child or parent to an undertaker to take from your home and that’s when you want to see a familiar face. They are not picking up an old settee.

“Surely families have to have a choice.”

Town councillors agreed to write to both the county council and Ceredigion coroner expressing their concerns.