BICESTER’S only cemetery could be full within 18 months, residents have been warned.

A plan to extend the cemetery behind St Edburg’s Church, in Church Street, has been thwarted after an electricity grid cable was found under the proposed extension site at Pringle Field.

Bicester Town Council said the estimated £30,000 cost to move the cable was too much.

Another cemetery is planned as part of the 5,000-home eco-town on the north-western edge of the town, but there are fears this will not be ready before St Edburg’s is full.

Residents may then have to be buried elsewhere.

Town councillor Debbie Pickford, a former mayor of Bicester, said: “This is quite a serious problem now.

“We have been promised they would work it into the eco-town, but I have a fear the closure of the town cemetery for burials and the eco-land will not marry up.

“We will continue to find every corner, every nook and cranny we possibly can, but we’re still going to have that time when it’s closed.

“It’s coming to the end of its time. Please be aware it’s diminishing and burials will be non-existent in about 18 months.

“People may not be able to have the burial of their choice.”

The extension would have provided an extra 60 plots. Moving a fence around the site would cost another £10,000 to £20,000 but Miss Pickford said this, added to the cost of moving the cable, put the likely final bill beyond the council’s resources.

The existing cemetery has 4,475 burial and cremation plots. There are just 54 single, four double and 63 cremation plots left.

New reservations of plots at the site were halted in 2006.

Miss Pickford plans to meet P3Eco, the consortium behind the eco-town project, to press for land to be allocated as soon as possible for a new cemetery.

However, the organisation would not be drawn on when land would be available.

Spokesman Rebecca Snow said: “P3Eco is in active discussions with Councillor Pickford about this issue and is trying to identify the best way of dealing with it.

“It’s P3Eco’s intention to provide a cemetery on the site as soon as they are able.”

The eco-town project is a phased project, which could take up to 30 years to complete.

A planning application has been submitted by P3Eco to Cherwell District Council for the first phase of the eco-town.

This would create 394 homes, a pub, shops, office accommodation a primary school.