A HAMPSHIRE council is facing a critical shortage of burial spaces with only 26 remaining in its largest cemetery.

A report has been sent to Fareham Council's Executive Committee highlighting the emerging problem at Holly Hill Cemetery, in Sarisbury.

Originally meant to hold 1,154 graves, over the next few months it is thought all spaces will have been used.

The council is now considering extending the cemetery into the Holly Hill Woodland Park, and buying some of the neighbouring residential gardens, or moving on to the Coldeast site, which has been designated for housing.

Fareham council is also one of the first in the country to consider promession, a process by which bodies are frozen to such an extent that they crumble to a fine powder, thereby alleviating pressure on cemeteries.

Whichever decision the council makes it is expected to cost thousands of pounds and buying residential land for plots could cost between £1m and £1.5m per acre.

Fareham Council leader Sean Woodward said: "When you consider that 40 per cent of Fareham's population lives in the Western Wards around Sarisbury, you see the problem. We want people to be able to be buried in the area where they lived.

"We are looking at all possibilities because something has to be done before we run out of space."

Cllr Woodward has been pressing for promession to be introduced and the council's crematorium joint committee is looking at the matter.

The council is today expected to agree to the reservation of grave spaces at Holly Hill and agree that discussions should begin with neighbours to try to buy their land.