THE charge for burying the dead is to rise by 10 per cent in Grove to meet rising costs.

Grove Parish Council will put up prices from October 1 to cover increasing maintenance costs at the Denchworth Road cemetery.

However, its charges remain among the cheapest in the Vale of White Horse. The overall £375 cost of reserving an adult plot, burial and approval of a headstone will rise to £412.50.

Burials at Denchworth Road cost £200 compared with £286 at St John the Baptist, Grove, and £214 at Chain Hill, Wantage.

Abingdon Town Council charges £494 for burials at Spring Road cemetery, and Oxford City Council charges more than £800.

Parish council environmental services committee chairman Jean Nunn-Price said: “All the work is done by our grounds staff and obviously wages have gone up since 2009 – not a lot, but some.”

Maintenance work includes cutting grass, weeding, taking away dead flowers and pruning bushes.

Council leader Frank Parnell said: “We have not put charges up since 2009, our costs have gone up since then so we felt it was time to review and, unfortunately, raise them.”

The cost of a funeral service at St John’s is £160 and a tablet, plaque or other marker costs £62.

Denchworth Road cemetery has 651 spaces, with 241 used and 43 reserved.