A SHORTAGE of space at a church graveyard has prompted a call for residents to speak out.

The cemetery at St Alkelda and St Mary's Church in Middleham has room for only two or three more burials.

The town's vicar, the Reverend Brendan Giblin, says the problem is a major concern for the community.

He said: "There's only space left for maybe three more graves and then it will be full up. There's nowhere else to bury people in Middleham.

"This means a widow or widower without a car would find it very difficult to visit the grave of their loved one."

Mr Giblin has written to the town council about the problem, and the authority is now in talks with Richmondshire District Council about extending the graveyard into a field next to the existing cemetery.

This land has been designated as an open space by the district council.

The town council is urging residents to write to the clerk expressing the importance of Middleham having its own cemetery so a strong case can be made. Middleham Mayor Tammi Tolhurst said the town needed its own cemetery.

"People who live here want to be buried next to their ancestors, or mother and father," she said.

"The problem is especially acute for the elderly who don't find it practical to travel to another town.

"Losing a churchyard is the same as losing a post office. Communities are dying because they are losing services, which are their life and soul."

John Carter, spokesman for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, said the shortage of burial space had been a national problem for decades.

"It's something that the church has been warning about for a long time," he said.

"The surprise is that Middleham has any space at all.

"The expectation that good Christian families will be buried as close to the church as possible, or even in the church, ended a long time ago."

Residents can write with their views to the town council clerk at Middleham Key Centre, Park Lane, Middleham, North Yorkshire, DL8 4RA.