WORK on a memorial garden has been given a boost from an £18,000 grant.

The extension to Ferryhill's Duncombe Cemetery is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

Ferryhill Town Council has already received about £71,000 towards the project, thanks to the Government's aggregate tax funding levy.

The levy calls for quarrying firms to put aside a pot of cash for environmental improvements within a ten-mile radius of the site.

The funding was allocated by Lafarge Aggregates, which recently applied to extend its Thrislington Quarry, near Ferryhill, by 80 hectares.

This latest funding will be used to install a fountain, and complete the structural work required at the garden.

Once complete, residents will be able to erect plaques, place vases and commemorative granite benches for relatives for the first time.

There are also plans for an ashes garden next to the memorial garden, where ashes may be buried.

The council has completed consultation with local churches and stonemasons to ensure all the facilities are fit for their purpose.

Leader of the town council, Councillor Bernie Lamb, said: "When we began the exercise of developing the cemetery four years ago, we were in a position where there would be no more burial plots in the town by next year.

"We now have a cemetery large enough to last another hundred years, but will also have a memorial garden, ashes garden, fountain, new car park, toilets, heritage centre and a link to the nearby nature reserve."

This latest development follows on from the work to extend the cemetery and create a heritage centre at the site.

Applications for funding to build a car park, public toilets and a footpath link to the Ferryhill Carrs have also been made.

Ferryhill Carrs recently won a Northumbria In Bloom conservation award in recognition of work by Sedgefield Borough Council's sustainable communities team.

The conservation area has also been designated as a site of special scientific interest.