First meeting in Shrewsbury baby ashes campaign

Action for Ashes will meet at Shrewsbury Baptist Church on Crowmere Road at 6.30pm.

The group was set up by Glen and Louise Perkins, who lost daughter Olivia to Sudden Death Infant Syndrome in 2007 and opted for a cremation at the Shrewsbury Crematorium on London Road, Emstrey.

Following the service for their four-month-old daughter they were not given any ashes.

Mr Perkins, 52, from Monkmoor in the town, claimed he had found out that only one in 30 sets of ashes had been returned to families following the cremation of babies or unborn children at the site over the last 10 years.

He said in many other crematoria, including Telford and Wrekin, ashes have been returned.

Shropshire Council confirmed an independent inquiry will be held into the crematorium's failure to return the ashes of dead babies to their families although timescales were not revealed, nor who will conduct the inquiry.

The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management said they believed it could be the first inquiry of its type in England.

Mr Perkins said: "We are holding our first meeting. We are not really sure how many people will be turning up but we have to start somewhere.

"There are probably a lot of people out there who have some information that could be quite valuable to the cause and people who have a story to tell. We would like to meet those people to build a case to put into the independent inquiry so everyone has their say.

"We want to take this as far as we can by having some sort of legislation passed so this will never happen again.

"And we want justice for the people who are suffering at the hands of a multitude of people."