FAMILIES will be able to remember their loved ones this Christmas with an online service.

Vale Royal Crematorium, which serves families across mid Cheshire, will be webcasting a one-hour Christmas carol and remembrance service at 7pm on Thursday, December 10.

The crematorium usually hosts the service in person, but is unable to this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dave Haslam, site manager, said: "We wanted to make sure we could provide something this year that would definitely be able to take place, regardless of whatever lockdown restrictions may, or may not, be in place.

“We know that it won’t be quite the same as our popular live services, which we very much hope to be able to return to hosting again next year.

“But Christmas is likely to be different for most people this year. And with so many other seasonal events being cancelled, such as live concerts and Christmas markets, we wanted to ensure we could still offer a way for people to join in a festive activity and to remember their loved ones at this time of year.

“In some ways, the fact that it is going to be so different this year may make these webcast services even more memorable.”

Westerleigh Group, which runs the crematorium, invested in new webcasting services earlier this year because of restrictions on the number of people that can attend funeral services.

A link to the service will be put onto the Vale Royal Crematorium website so that people will be able to view it live, and it will then be available to watch back at a later date.