A GROUP of residents are furious at the council for failing to inform them about its plans to expand the cemetery until it was too late for them to object to it.

The town's main burial ground is set to be expanded as the council seeks to double the lifetime of Henley Road Cemetery. 

The current site will be full within 12 years and sections assigned for Muslim interments are only three years away from capacity.

Reading Borough Council officers have proposed a one-hectare stretch of recreation ground backing on to Valentine Crescent as their preferred option to add another dozen years of use to the grounds.

Dog walker, Phil Hawkins, said that residents are "hot under the collar" after only finding out about the council's plans yesterday.

He said: "There's around 40 of us who are extremely disappointed that we have not been given a chance to put our side across. We only found out yesterday and I've been talking to Councillor Jeanette Skeates and she said that it is too late to protest. It is very naughty the way the council have gone about it.

"I am 67 years old and my wife is disabled, we do not want to walk a mile or so to the nearest green space to walk our dog. Loads of people not just residents walk their dog on this space of land and in the summer the children are out there playing football on it.

"Its such a good place to walk your dog and because it is walled it means you can let the dog off the lead and let them run round.

"One chap who lives on Valentine Crescent he said he would not have bought the property if he had known about the council's plans. He said it was the green space that attracted him to his house and a year ago when he was buying the property the local authority assured him there were no plans to turn it into a graveyard."

Paul Gittings, lead member for culture and sport, said: “Burial space is at a premium in most urban local authority areas, and that applies to Reading as well.

“The proposal is to bring back into use a piece of land originally set aside as cemetery land nearly 100 years ago.

“The use of this additional parcel of land will allow the council to double the amount of burial capacity available in Reading, which we need to do to cope with demand into the future.”

Councillors on the authority’s policy committee will discuss the plans next Monday, November 2, and are recommended to approve the recreation ground expansion.