BEREAVED families will have to fork out more money to bury and cremate loved ones in Worcester with some prices set to soar “astronomically” by as much as 166 per cent.

With budgets being constantly squeezed, Worcester City Council is proposing to reduce the subsidy on nearly every charge and service offered at Astwood Cemetery and St John’s Cemetery.

That is because the council wants to even out its charges, bring them in line with competitors, and offset rising costs.

This comes after the Church of England voted to increase fees for weddings by 40 per cent and the cost of a funeral service by more than half.

A basic burial for an adult, for example, currently costs £598 – but that is set to rise to £625 while the cremation of an adult will go from £459 to £530.

While leaders claim most charges are going up by about five per cent that last one is increasing by 15 per cent while the cremation of a baby that died before it was one month old will go from £30 to £80 – an increase of 166 per cent.

Councillor Roger Berry, of the opposition Labour group, said: “They seem pretty astronomical increases.”

At a meeting of the city council’s cabinet Councillor Roger Knight, deputy leader and the man in charge of the cleaner and greener department, admitted: “Of course it wil raise eyebrows but this is what we feel to be quite reasonable.” Coun Knight, a Conservative, said the council is trying to rationalise its charging policy.

“There are currently elements that are heavily subsidised without really any reason and no clarity as to why we have arrived at that them,” he said.

“That £30 to £80 increase is still carrying subsidy but we are trying to get the subisdy down.”

Councillor Simon Geraghty, leader, said the crematorium needs to cover its costs and said the facility will require “substantial investment” in the coming years.

Coun Knight said the council has used a similar method to alter its charges in other areas and said the price increases had been outlined “in very broad detail” to the cemeteries and crematorium committee.