THE cost of funerals will double in April as Wrexham council introduces new charges for cremations and burials.

If you live in Wrexham and want to be buried in the town it will cost more than £1,200 after April 1, a rise of £600.

The new funeral charges should raise around £81,000 in revenue over 12 months.

The move has been attacked by members of the council and groups representing the elderly and disabled in Wrexham.

Scattering the ashes of your loved ones at Pentre Bychan Crematorium - known as witnessed strewing --will go from being free to £25. The council believes it will raise £7,000 a year by introducing a charge.

Cremations will rise by £61 while a plot to inter the cremated remains of a family member will go from £116 to £239.

And the cost of a cremated remains plot will go up from £146 to £300.

The council will also charge residents of Wrexham County Borough the same to be buried or cremated as people from outside the area - generating an estimated £65,000.

The council says the move is down to a European ruling which means it can no longer discriminate between residents and non-residents of the county.

This means it has to scrap its residential discount which allowed Wrexham taxpayers half-price funeral fees.

Those against the scheme say it is simply using bereavement to boost the budget by £81,000.

Wrexham residents currently pay £292 for a single adult burial. That will now rise to £602. The purchase of exclusive rights of burial - a burial plot - will also rise from £292 to £602.

Price rises also apply to the Muslim sections of Wrexham cemeteries.

The council is also axing one of the seasonal groundkeepers' posts and claims it can save £9,000 per year and maintain

standards by making the other two groundskeepers work an extra four weeks.

Ruabon Labour councillor Nick Colbourne said: 'The council wants to make it even more expensive for people who are at the lowest point of their lives. To me that's wrong.'

Labour councillors voted against the budget but were outnumbered by Liberal Democrats, Independents and Tories.