A funeral director in Melksham said he is frustrated at news the town’s cemetery will run out of burial spaces in about a year.

Patrik Bewley, who joined his father’s firm DJ Bewley in 1980 and took it over after his death, said for the past 10 years he has been warning West Wiltshire District Council about the impending shortage of space.

Mr Bewley, who has even reserved a plot for himself at the cemetery off Western Way, said: “I have been asking for 10 years ‘where is the new cemetery going to be?’ as people have been asking me. They haven’t been able to give me an answer. It’s terrible really.”

Mr Bewley, who runs offices in Bank Street, Melksham and Duke Street, Trowbridge, said he carries out about 95 per cent of the burials at the cemetery, which is now being examined to see where extra space can be created.

He added: “I think they have left it a little bit too late to try and organise a solution. I have seen the problem creeping up on us for some time.

“It will be a very sad day when Melksham doesn’t have a cemetery any more. I have lived in Melksham all my life and I’m looking to be buried there one day. I have already bought my plot.”

A churchyard at St Andrew’s Church in Church Lane was reopened to new burials and cremation spaces last year after being closed for five years, which Mr Bewley said has taken some of the pressure off the main cemetery.

The rector at St Michael’s Church, next to the cemetery, said he hoped the situation would be resolved soon.

The Rev Derek Smith, who has been at the church for 11 years, said: “It hasn’t been something people have been panicking about yet but I guess that is because they assume someone will find a piece of land of somewhere.

“If it comes to the point where there isn’t any or they have to go elsewhere to find burial spaces the feeling will be much stronger.”

Mr Smith said the cemetery space had been used up faster than predicted.

“It’s important for people who want to visit graves. It’s an important issue where they are buried and it’s important for the sense of connection for people who have lived here all their lives. For some people that is generations.”

The district council said although there is about a year’s space left, they are looking at planting and tarmac areas to use as extra space as a “temporary measure”.

A spokesman said: “We have looked into the possibility of other sites for a new cemetery. Much of our land in the district has already been allocated for housing or is unsuitable because it is on floodplain areas.

“There are several sites that may be available, however we have made no decisions and will not be doing so in the three remaining weeks we have left. “Our ideas have been passed to the new Wiltshire Council as a basis for them to make decisions, and we do not wish to make any comments on sites as this may influence their decisions.”