THE wheels are in motion to extend the Malmesbury cemetery, as the site nears capacity.

Plans have been drawn up over the past two years to extend the cemetery on Tetbury Hill.

Land for the new part of the site, an adjacent field, has been owned by the Joint Burial Committee, a combination of councillors from Malmesbury Town Council and St Pauls Malmesbury Without Council, for a number of years.

Around half of the field will be used for the extension, which committee chairman Bryan Merriman says will cover at least another 50 years of burials at the site.

“In a couple of years time it is going to get tight for spaces,” he said.

“We have given the contractors the go ahead now though and we expect work to start imminently.

“It will take couple of years to develop and for grass to grow so it looks nice, however if there is a need sooner we will be ready to deal with that.”

Catherine Doody, vice chair of the burial committee, explained what work would be done.

She said: “We’re going to screen off the piece of land we’re going to work on, put up some fencing and then some hedges.

“The hedges will be the same sort as the other parts of the current cemetery.”

The cemetery extension will mostly be funded by the burial committee’s reserves, with support from the two councils.