FAMILIES are shunning costs at Oxford Crematorium and bringing ashes back for cheaper rates in their home town.

Witney Town Council's cemetery manager Henry Westbury says there has been a rise in requests for memorial plots at the town's Tower Hill cemetery.

"People are responding to the quite outrageous costs being charged at Oxford," he said.

"We charge double the rate

By DAVID HORNE

for people living outside the town, but it still compares favourably.

"More families now want to bring back the ashes to Witney. We have some space at the town cemetery, but there is a limit."

Mr Westbury's comments come after criticism from Wallingford rector John Morley last week over the way Oxford Crematorium is being run.

Mr Morley urged families in his area to have their loved ones' ashes interred in their home town.

Earlier this year, Peter and Margaret Green, from Kidlington, revealed they had exhumed the ashes of their six-year-old son after a row over prices.

Oxford Crematorium is owned by the Texas-based Service Corporation International (SCI), which also owns five funeral directors in the county. Prices for memorials range from £300 for a rose bush and memorial plaque for ten years to £3,000 for a memorial garden in perpetuity.

But at Witney, the town council offers a burial-sized plot for £126.50, plus £40 a time for the interment of ashes of up to eight members of a family. The maximum cost, with nothing extra for maintenance, is £446.50.

The costs are lower, partly because the town council has a policy of subsidising the cemetery through the town rates. Graham Barber, SCI's UK director, said he believed the service offered at Oxford Crematorium was good value for money.

He said: "Three and a half million people experience SCI services every year and we receive complaints from just one per cent of bereaved families.

"I am not going to get defensive about prices. There are an awful lot of roses that have to be replaced. We have a full-time gardening staff. There are trees to cut, chapels to redecorate and other maintenance costs."

Pressure for space in Witney is exacerbated by the lack of a cemetery in neighbouring Carterton.

Town and district councillor Peter Madden said the problem will get worse as both towns are set to expand with new housing estates.

There are now proposals for a new crematorium in the area.

Meanwhile work on a second crematorium in Oxfordshire is due to start at Banbury in April.

The London Cremation Company has been granted permission to begin a £1m project on nine acres adjacent to Hardwick Hill Cemetery.

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