YORK Cemetery could close to fresh burials in 15 years if laws are not passed allowing graves to be re-used.

Richard Keesing, chairman of York Cemetery Trust, which owns and runs the cemetery, said burials would have to stop at the 24-acre site, if legislation was not passed allowing burial ground to be used again.

At the moment it is illegal to disturb the dead in order to re-use a grave.

But Mr Keesing says the law could mean the cemetery, which has been part of the city's heritage since 1837, could be full in 15 to 20 years.

"One of the issues is whether it will ever be acceptable in the UK to re-use burial ground. If it is generally acceptable for burial ground to be re-used, there are places here that could be re-used," he said.

"If there is no change in legislation within 15 to 20 years we will have to cope with the site without taking any more burials."

He said the trust was saving money, so that once the cemetery was closed to new burials, it would be able to pay for a warden to maintain the grounds.

The trust estimated that in 15 years' time it would have saved £400,000 to pay for a full-time warden to look after the site, which is also a wildlife refuge and a source of social, military and historic information.

Mr Keesing said that without a warden the graves would become overgrown and derelict.

Cemetery warden Vanessa Temple said: "This isn't just about York Cemetery this is a national concern and something that the government have to decide on."

She said that even if the cemetery did stop taking burials, there would still be space for cremated ashes and the site would still be an important resource for the city.

York MP Hugh Bayley said the Government would have to look at the issue.

"People want to be reassured that existing graves will be treated with proper respect, but the Cemetery Trust should contact me if they think that a change in the law would help them," he said.

Updated: 10:57 Thursday, August 21, 2003