A CROWDED cemetery is taking a radical step to make much-needed space for burials - by placing new bodies in old graves.

Room is at such a premium at The City of London Cemetery, in Aldersbrook, that it has been granted the right to open up current plots for re-use.

The cemetery, which is the biggest of its type in Europe, is fast running out of land, and has become the first in the UK to be given a 'faculty' - by the Church of England to re-open a group of paupers graves from the 1920s.

London is the only area of the country where cemeteries can re-use graves over the age of 75 - but permission has to be sought from the church to disturb plots located on consecrated ground.

The move, which will involve the removal and re-burying of remains from some of the old plots, would see the creation of so-called 'double-decker' graves where new bodies are interred on top of up to five or six existing coffins.

Gary Burks, superintendent and registrar of the City of London Cemetery, said the move was necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the site - which hosts more than 1,000 burials and 2,500 cremations each year.

He said: "We were given a faculty by the church to re-use these old graves and to remove and re-bury any remains we disturb in the process.

"Graves have been re-used in churchyards for centuries, but we think this is the first time this measure has been used for public graves in consecrated ground in a municipal cemetery.

"When these public, or paupers graves were dug you would have had the coffins of five strangers buried on top of eachother during the course of about two weeks and then it would have been closed.

"We are planning to re-map the area where these graves are, and raise the ground a little to make more space.

"We then aim to bury an extra two people in each plot.

"Like many cemeteries in London this one is very crowded and this is the only way we can keep this site sustainable."

Rita Brown, 67, whose husband Frank was buried at The City of London Cemetery eight years ago, said: "I understand that they are running out of space and that they need to find new ways of finding room but it still isn't a nice thought.

"They need to ensure that people's graves are treated with respect. The dead can't speak up for themselves can they."