MP ANDREW Lansley officially opened a £2.5million development at Cambridge Pet Crematorium. The South Cambridgeshire MP unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the new facilities at the Thriplow site. A farewell suite and mortuary have been built for

MP ANDREW Lansley officially opened a £2.5million development at Cambridge Pet Crematorium.

The South Cambridgeshire MP unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the new facilities at the Thriplow site.

A "farewell suite" and mortuary have been built for users of the crematorium, while there is also a new office suite and a refurbished public reception area.

Vetspeed, the company which owns the crematorium, has also installed a "Rotoclave", which is used for disposing clinical waste.

Duncan Francis, director of Vetspeed, said: "The new facilities will give people the opportunity to pay their respects to their animals in the way in which they see fit.

"It also means we will be able to handle more pets than ever before.

"And the system we have for dealing with clinical waste is state-of-the-art, so we will now be able to further develop this side of our business."

Mr Francis said that Vetspeed had further developments in the pipeline, which it hoped would create more than 20 new jobs.

"We're going to be spending another £1.5million on improving this site in the near future.

"At the moment our workforce is 86, and we're aiming to increase that to 110 in the next two years," he said.

Mr Lansley said that he was "really impressed" with the quality of service offered to users of the crematorium.

The Shadow Health Secretary also expressed his approval of the Rotoclave system, and called on the NHS to work with companies like Vetspeed.

He said: "There is some really leading edge technology in the private sector, which I hope can be taken on board by the health service.