YORK will run out of burial space within a decade, unless the local authority acts now, a new report has warned.

At the present rate of use Fulford Cemetery, the main burial site for York, will be full in only six years. Another burial site, York Cemetery, will be full in ten years.

But City of York Council officers have been examining proposals to extend the cemetery at Fulford to give it enough space for 70 years of new burials.

About 200 people a year are buried in Fulford Cemetery, and more than three-quarters are York residents who did not live in Fulford.

City of York Council has had an agreement with Fulford Parish Council for almost 40 years to use its burial facilities for all York residents. In return City of York pays an annual fee of only £50, as well as a maintenance sum, to meet interment costs.

The deal was agreed in 1968 when the city's Dringhouses Cemetery was becoming full.

Now Fulford Parish Council has asked City of York Council to underwrite a £100,000 loan to extend the cemetery onto neighbouring agricultural land, and renegotiate the terms of the existing agreement.

Fulford councillors have also discussed the possibility of providing a dedicated Muslim burial site within the planned extension.

The council report said that if the councillors wished to "provide burial facilities for the citizens of City of York Council beyond the next five years then new arrangements will need to be put in place."

Alternatives to the use of Fulford Cemetery have also been examined.

Other proposals include making new arrangements with Huntington or Rufforth and Knapton Parish Councils.

But in their report council officers recommended that councillors agree in principle to underwrite the loan for Fulford Cemetery, and revise the existing agreement to increase then annual fee.

They warned that if the Fulford agreement was terminated, and no further burial arrangements made, the "majority of York citizens would not have access to burial facilities." In a letter to City of York council, Fulford Parish Council clerk Jeanne Fletcher said: "Fulford Parish Council believes that a successful extension of the current site represents best value for all concerned, but it will therefore take positive endorsement action by the City of York Council to make it happen. The time is fast approaching when firm decisions must be taken, and commitments made by all parties involved."

Updated: 11:01 Monday, September 06, 2004