A developer who donated a 12-acre site for an urgently needed cemetery in Staffordshire said today that the land was the “ideal spot”.

Ken Lees has gifted the plot, in Great Wyrley, to South Staffordshire Council. Bosses say that it will meet demand in the village and neighbouring Cheslyn Hay for half a century, providing 8,000 spaces.

Strawberry Lane Cemetery will transform an area the size of five rugby pitches between Strawberry Lane and Upper Landywood Lane.

A crest-shaped road will enclose a cemetery for cremated remains, while a tree-lined pathway will mark the western edge of the development.

Buried remains will be laid to rest on the east of the site.

Father-of-three Mr Lees, who runs Cannock-based KGL Estates, said today: “It is a lovely spot, on the highest point overlooking the village.

“It’s the ideal spot within the area of Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay.”

The 75-year-old graduated from an eight-year career in the mining industry aged 23 and went straight into business, and 52 years later has no plans to retire.

His company has built 50 cottages at 1,200-acre Teddesley Park in Penkridge as well as completing a number of barn conversions at the site, while down the decades thousands of homes have been erected by the developer.

“People that retire too early are wishing their lives away,” Mr Lees, who has three grandchildren, said.

“To be working is a great thing.

“At the moment I have got the health to do it, and I shall continue to do it.”

Mr Lees’s latest project could open next spring.

The land has a market value of £250,000 but Mr Lees this week agreed to hand it over for nothing.

It will ease a crisis of burial space, with two plots available at churches in the area.

The development is expected to cost £300,000.

District councillor Joan Williams thanked Mr Lees.

She said: “We’ve wanted to develop a site in the north for quite some time, and thanks to Ken Lees’s kind offer we’ve been able to do it a lot quicker than we would have otherwise been able to do.”