COUNCIL chiefs in Worcester have apologised for wrongly telling a Muslim family to wait a week before burying a loved one.

Worcester City Council's bosses have also offered to meet up with the family in person - saying they moved as quickly as they could to "rectify the situation" once they knew about it.

As your Worcester News revealed on Saturday, a Muslim family approached the council earlier this month and asked for a family member to be buried at the main huge Astwood Road cemetery in Perdiswell.

Under Islamic custom a body is normally buried within 24 hours but workers told them to wait around seven days, leading to Councillor Paul Denham having to intervene.

The city council says it has investigated the problem and wants to apologise for any hurt it caused.

It has also emerged that the poor response came from the city's crematorium team, although it is being put down to a one-off.

David Sutton, the service manager for cleaner and greener, said: "This matter was originally brought to my attention by Councillor Andy Roberts (the Conservative cabinet member overseeing the service) and I have now thoroughly investigated it.

"Although original misinformation was given by the crematorium team, the situation was quickly rectified and we were able to make funeral arrangements which fully met the wishes of the family.

"We would like to apologise for any upset that has been caused.

"We don’t want to intrude at this sensitive time, but would be happy to meet the family to discuss the matter further at any point in the future, if they so wish."

The family, who have not been identified, opted against burying their loved one at the volunteer-led Muslim cemetery in favour of the main city one.

The main cemetery only has nine Muslim people buried there at the moment.

Councillor Denham criticised the authority's handling of it last week, saying the response was not good enough.

In the end, after councillors got involved the body was buried straightaway.