Burial and cremation charges in Wolverhampton are to rise by around five per cent from April, council bosses have ruled, adding £68 to the existing £1,352 basic fee.

The bill for the interment of cremated remains will also go up by £35 to £725.

A number of other interlinked bereavement services, including headstone erection charges, grave kerbstones, urns and remembrance book entries, will also rise by a near inflation-matching amount after the charges were approved last night by the council’s one-party cabinet resources panel.

Defending the move, Councillor John Reynolds said, even after the increase, Wolverhampton’s charges for the service would still be lower than in some neighbouring local authority areas.

Part of the extra income would be added to a bereavement services reserve fund, which would be bolstered in the coming year by an estimated £195,000 to about £1.175 million.

A £275,000 slice of the fund had been earmarked to help provide a new cemetery to cope with increasing demands for burial space.

A controversial city council proposal to develop a new cemetery on 25 acres acres of open space and grazing land just beyond Wolverhampton’s boundary in Langley Road, Lower Penn, hinges on the outcome of a planning appeal after the application was turned down by the South Staffordshire authority.

And proposals recently emerged to enlarge the city’s Bushbury Cemetery by developing an expanse of neighbouring agricultural land alongside Underhill Lane. But a number of major hurdles would have to be cleared to pave the way for the extension, including the need for a survey to test for a possible threat of groundwater contamination and the council-owned site’s suitability for burial purposes.

The authority is also facing a big bill for the replacement of cremators, linked to fitting equipment to strictly control emissions, at Bushbury Crematorium.

The work is likely to be commissioned in two or three years time.