Limit on number of funeral mourners in Wakefield cut again

Services organised on or after April 16 are affected by the change. Those organised beforehand can still have up to 20 mourners in attendance.

Only 10 people will be able to attend any funeral service that's organised from today (April 16).

That excludes those actually administering the service.

The change does not affect funerals organised before today. The number of mourners allowed to attend them remains restricted to 20 - a limit that was imposed by Wakefield Council last month.

The local authority said it has tightened the limit in line with government guidance.

The council’s acting chief executive, Andrew Balchin, said: "We understand that this is an incredibly difficult time for grieving families and want to do everything we can to support them.

"We have carefully considered how we can best keep people safe, whilst still allowing families to mourn their loved one.

"These new temporary measures are being introduced to strengthen social distancing for the benefit of mourners, funeral directors and staff.

"We hope people will understand why we’ve had to make this difficult decision.”

The council says it will ask those attending services to remain two metres apart to adhere to social distancing rules.

Local Democracy Reporting Service