A Bonhill man has called on West Dunbartonshire Council to stream funerals online to help grieving families shut out by the lockdown.

Strict rules on gatherings nationwide have left families with heartbreaking decisions to make when deciding who is able to attend services, with just 10 people allowed into Clydebank Crematorium at one time.

And after facing that situation, and being forced to stream a recent funeral to family members and friends locked out via a tablet, Hugh Houston revealed how challenging the situation has been for his family.

He told the Lennox Herald: “This is a difficult enough time for the family without this added stress.

“West Dunbartonshire Council has a limit of 10 people being able to attend a funeral at Clydebank Crematorium, so we had to have some really difficult discussions about who the 10 people would be.

“There were some relatives abroad who wouldn’t have been able to travel due to the lockdown anyway, but there were other local relatives and friends who would’ve been there but couldn’t attend.

“When we were making our arrangements, the undertaker said that we could go to either Clydebank Crematorium where they will let in 10 people, or Cardross where they have streaming but Argyll and Bute only allow eight people.

“The undertaker said that West Dunbartonshire were hoping to have streaming in place by the time the funeral took place, so we chose Clydebank for that reason.

“By the end of the week, prior to the funeral, we were then informed that streaming wasn’t set up so we had a few days to try and make arrangements of our own.”

Hugh’s family’s personal arrangements for recording the service were far from ideal however.

He continued: “The close relatives did manage to get into some kind of stream, it was via messenger but we had to use our own tablet and do it that way so the quality wasn’t great and the sound was poor.

“It started off with one of us having to film it, but to give the undertakers their due one of their staff took the tablet and did it herself.

“It would’ve been better if it had been a proper video camera so people could’ve tuned in and heard it properly.

“The council really need to get their act together to help families at a time like this.”

A spokeswoman for West Dunbartonshire Council confirmed that they were hoping to offer a streaming service, however would be unable to provide a timeframe for this.

She said: “We understand the comfort families and friends receive from services and are in the process of upgrading the crematorium’s technology to enable us to offer streaming in the future.”