Lib Dem/Tory-run Southwark Council plans to hit the bereaved with massive hikes in the price of burying a loved-one. In a decision due to be taken next week (26^th January), the council plans to increase the cost of getting buried in a private grave by over 30% to £1074 and the price of a council grave by almost 60% to £1089.74 for a fifty year period. The charge increases mean that a burial in a council cemetery will cost the bereaved over £2150 even before a funeral director is paid for.

In 2008 the Lib Dem Environment boss was slammed in the national press for increasing funeral charges in January to “maximise the peak demand period”.

Southwark Labour’s spokesperson for Environment and Transport, Cllr Barrie Hargrove said:

“Southwark’s Lib Dems have got form on price hikes for funerals; it was only two years ago that they decided to start putting prices up in January to “maximise the peak demand period”. But the sheer scale of these increases is almost unbelievable.

“Ratcheting up the price of a fifty-year grave by over twenty times the rate of inflation is going to hit Southwark families just as they’re trying to come to terms with the death of a loved-one. The last thing they ought to be burdened with at that time is the worry of a gigantic bill from the council which could top £2000.”