CEMETERY and crematorium fees in Ribble Valley look set to increase from 30 per cent to 60 per cent.

Council bosses say the charges they currently impose for grave plots and scattering ashes are among the lowest in Lancashire.

Proposals were presented to the borough’s health and housing committee which would see the cost of a grave plot increase from £615 to £845 from next April, a rise of 37.4 per cent.

But the price for an ashes plot, under the same plans, would see a hike from £257 to £416, a 61.9 per cent increase.

And the charge for the interment of an under 16-year-old, currently £164, would double to £328.

Woodland burials, which currently cost £575, would cost £765 from 2019-20.

Councillors have heard that the first phase of the fees increased was unveiled during the last financial year.

Andrew Cook, the council’s resources director, said in a report: “It is now proposed that the second part of the fee increases for exclusive burial rights, interments, right to erect headstones and right to place stone plaque on ashes plot is approved by this committee for 2019/20, so that the fees at Clitheroe Cemetery are moved to the average level of other Lancashire cemeteries.”

New fees are also being introduced for commemorative shrubs, £90, which would take effect immediately. This would then cost £92 from April 1.

Mr Cook added: “This is because there is very little room left within the current cemetery grounds for commemorative trees and allowing the planting of commemorative shrubs as well as trees will allow more memorial shrubs/trees to be fitted into the areas left for planting.”

Elsewhere in the proposals, the right to place a stone plaque on an ashes plot, which would currently set families back £64, would cost £93, a 45.3 per cent hike.