A FAMILY have told of their shock after being hit with a £1,000 bill to bury their grandparents together despite buying the double-plot 38 years ago.

Dr Sarah Morris, 46, was outraged when forced to pay an extra £1,086.75 to have grandma Doris buried in Marlow Cemetery with her husband, Harold, who died back in 1967.

Mrs Morris, 98, died on February 21 this year but had been living outside Marlow for the past 38 years following her husband's death.

Before she moved away with family, she purchased a double plot so she could return to the town and be buried with her husband.

But because she lived outside Marlow for so long, her family was charged three-and-a-half times more than the normal rate for burial.

Dr Morris, of Maulden, Bedfordshire, has now called on Marlow Town Council to cut their prices.

She said: "We are very unhappy we had to pay £600 in internment and around £400 maintenance.

"The issue is not that we paid it it is that she paid it up front.

"This is an issue for families in a similar situation. We could afford to pay it but poorer families might not."

The council said it was simply following rules which mean local residents get reduced cemetery fees because they pay local council tax. It said the rates were agreed annually by its cemetery sub-committee and were also compared to rates in neighbouring councils.

But the family insist the rules are insensitive to the couple, who lived in Marlow for more than 60 years and owned a well known butcher's shop in Spittal Street named after Mr Morris's father, Thomas.

They were also local farmers.

Great grandson Tom Morris, 21, said: "It the system doesn't take into account the history very seriously. Sixty years is a long time to live somewhere."

Katherine Joy, deputy clerk for the council, said the rules could not be changed in individual cases but they were aware of the family's complaint.

She said: "Obviously our members are aware of it but it is up to the sub-committee when the review comes around again to see whether they want to increase or maintain the current fees that govern the cemetery."

"There has not been a problem in the past," she added.