The council decided this week not to sell the crematorium at Andersons Bay Cemetery after considering it in a non-public part of a full council meeting.
Councillors first considered the matter at a community development committee meeting early this year and again in private at March's full council meeting, where they requested more information on the options and their implications.
After considering a further report, again in private, on Monday they resolved not to sell the crematorium "at this time", and to retain it in public ownership.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said he could not comment publicly on the details of why the council was considering the option of a sale, but for "a combination of social and commercial reasons" councillors had decided it was not appropriate to put the cremator on the market.
Although that was not to say they would not consider it again in the future.
The crematorium housed the only cremators in Dunedin and while the council ran the cemeteries, it was a "curious adjunct" to have a commercial operation that was a monopoly running alongside that, he said.
In March, funeral home Hope and Sons told the ODT it had previously been approached by the council and remained an interested buyer.
Managing director Michael Hope did not respond to messages last night, but had previously said his company had discussed the crematorium with the council repeatedly in recent years.
The company was approached by the council again last year, about the same time it shelved an appeal against decisions by the DCC and Otago Regional Council not to grant consents for a cremator at Hope and Sons' own South Dunedin site, he said.
