Building work to create Gravesham’s first crematorium in a new memorial park is due to start next month.

Developers Mercia Crematoria and The London Cremation Company (LCC) will begin construction at the 27-acre site in Chalk and hope to open next summer.

When finished, the park will include a crematorium, cemetery, two chapels and woodland burial ground.

There will also be a car park of 58 spaces close to the crematorium and overflow parking for a further 48 vehicles.

Work on the crematorium, which will be built next to St Mary the Virgin Church, in Rochester Road, had been due to start in March.

The development will provide relief for council bosses, worried by burial space reaching full capacity.

In December 2013, a Gravesham council report stated cemeteries in Gravesend and Northfleet were 11 years away from being full. Gravesham council leader John Cubitt said: “The need for a crematorium and more burial space in the borough has been apparent for some time.

“This proposal is set to achieve what we have been looking for and we are pleased that this vital project will move forward.”

The borough’s first crematorium will also mean mourners can pay their final respects closer to home. The nearest crematorium is 12 miles away at Blue Bell Hill, near Chatham, with another 15 miles away in Eltham and one 17 miles away in Maidstone.

The LCC, which also operates the Garden of England Crematorium at Sittingbourne, joined the project to replace Co-operative Funeral Care, which withdrew for financial reasons.

Managing director Stephen Wright said: “This is a fantastic beginning to LCC’s plan of expansion of our long tradition of providing quality services to the bereaved.”

Previously, concerns had been raised about the crematorium by members of the Dickens Country Preservation Society, who were worried about slow moving corteges and views of the church being blocked.

They were echoed by both Shorne and Higham parish councils.

Gravesham has two main burial grounds – Gravesend Cemetery in Old Road West and Northfleet Cemetery in Springhead Road.

Rural cemeteries include Southfleet, Higham, Ifield, Luddesdown and Meopham.