GRAVE space at one of the area’s biggest cemetery’s is set to run out in just six years.

Plots at the City of London Cemetery in Aldersbrook Road, Aldersbrook, are so in demand that 32 people have signed up to share someone else’s final resting place.

The City of London Corporation says there are between 400 to 500 burials at the cemetery each year, but only 3,000 plots left.

Those who have agreed to share a grave will be buried on top of existing remains and their names will be inscribed on the other side of existing memorial stones.

Only private graves which have not been used for more than 75 years are being used in the project.

Cemetery superintendent and registrar, Gary Burks, said: “Most people don’t seem to mind the notion. It’s proved a lot less controversial than you’d think.”

In another corner of the 200-acre cemetery, 360 more people have already been buried in consecrated graves where the Diocese of Chelmsford approved the removal of remains to create space.

Asim Nawaz, a bereavement service officer at the cemetery, believes the high demand for burials is down to its long-standing traditions and Grade I-listed status.

He added: “The cemetery has been here since the 1800s and it has always been a very popular resting place.

“People wish to come here because their families have before them and because it’s such a large cemetery.”

While City of London remains in high demand, there is plenty of grave space left in the rest of Redbridge.

Roding Lane in Woodford Green and Forest Park in Hainault cemeteries have a total of 13,800 empty graves.

The council is confident space in the borough will not run out for at least 50 years, a spokeswoman added.