BURYING a mother near her son will cost four-times the normal price because she lives outside the borough the cemetery is in.

Judy Oram, 70, who has terminal breast cancer, wants to be buried in St Mary Cray Cemetery, Star Lane, because her son Peter, who died at three weeks old in the 1970s, is buried there.

As the resident of The Oaks Nursing Centre, Sidcup Road, New Eltham, suffers from dementia, her friend Terence Jesse is organising her funeral and burial.

When the 61-year-old contacted Bromley Council’s cemeteries office he was told it will cost £12,620 to bury her, instead of the £3,155 standard fee, because Ms Oram lives outside the borough.

The resident of Vanessa Way, Dartford, said: “I think it is immoral. It is a tax on bereavement.

“Many people who move away from their hometown want to be buried in a cemetery there when they die, to be close to family buried there and so people can visit their grave easily.

“To have to pay four-times the normal price because they won’t be living in the borough when they die is unfair.”

A Bromley Council spokesman said the policy is in place because there is limited burial space in the borough so it has to be protected for local residents.

Of the seven cemeteries, there is only burial space left in St Mary Cray Cemetery and Biggin Hill Cemetery, Kingsmead Road, and this is expected to run out in the next 10 years.

Mr Jesse, a lorry driver, plans to write to the council to ask it to allow Ms Oram to be buried for the standard rate, as he believes her case warrants an exception to the fees rule.

However, a council spokesman said that, although it will consider Mr Jesse’s request, it is unlikely to make an exception to the rule because it would be unfair on others who have to pay the full amount.