A VILLAGE that has run out of space to bury its dead is on the hunt for more land.

Wheatley Parish Council announced last month that St Mary’s Church would have to stop accepting burials before the year is out.

It then asked villagers for ideas on what to do next.

The two ideas floated included hunting for new land – which will be funded by an increase of council tax, or sending locals out of Wheatley to be buried.

The Parish Council got 326 replies, which was dubbed ‘not many’ by the chairman – who explained that the area has a population of more than 4,000.

Despite this, the results were in favour of the council appointing a team to investigate the possibilities of land in the area that was suitable.

Nigel Hawkes, the reverend of the church that has provided space for Wheatley burials for the last 150 years, wrote in the village newsletter in August that the closure of the graveyard was of no surprise.

He said: “Over the last several years we have been letting you know that the churchyard is nearly full and will be closed to new burials.”

Adding that the legal process has officially begun to close it, which would make adding new grave plots illegal as of the new year.

The procedure for closing churchyards is managed by the Ministry of Justice, despite no one agency responsible for providing burial grounds in the UK.

Burials in reserved plots and in existing graves will still be legally allowed, as well as the ‘scattering’ or ‘strewing’ of cremated remains (ashes) in graves and dedicated spots.

The appointed team, who are working alongside Wheatley neighbourhood plan team, will now be tasked with looking for and buying some land – since the Parish Council do not own any suitable.

At the moment, the overall cost is hard to establish as the price of the land is dependant on factors like size and location, as well as surveys to the ground to see if it is suitable to be dug six feet down.

However, a similar project was done in Warwickshire Parish nine years ago.

That was estimated to cost around £173,000 per acre – in 2009.

According to Planning for Cemeteries, an acre can accommodate about 1,000 graves.

With the initial cost provided for by a public works loan and the repayments being covered by an increase of the parish percept, their part of the council tax.

The cost for the actual burial would only ‘contribute’ to the ongoing maintenance.

There are 234 parish councils in the county, which are entitled to raise a precept, local rate, which is then collected by Oxfordshire County Council as part of council tax.