West Lancashire is to get a new cemetery and crematorium, says the district's Labour MP. Rosie Cooper's three-year fight for such a facility is set to become a reality after receiving assurances from the leader of West Lancashire District Council that a planning application is imminent for a site in Pippin Street, Burscough.

The news means that grieving families will no longer have to go outside the district to bury their loved ones - and face an added 'death tax' into the bargain for being non-residents.

West Lancs MP Rosie said: "This is a fantastic result for the people of West Lancashire. It's taken three years of hard campaigning to get this far and am hopeful the council will make a decision on any planning application as a matter of the utmost urgency."

"It's been an absolute scandal that it has come to a point where there are no burial spaces left in the district. But when I was elected in 2005, I made this issue a number one priority and am over the moon that the wheels are now starting to turn."

"However, I want people reassure people in Skelmersdale that I firmly believe the town should have its own facilities and that any opportunities there should be fully exploited."

"Negotiations have already begun on this and there is no reason why the district couldn't accommodate two new burial grounds."

"Thankfully, the district council, after years of washing its hands of the situation by saying it wasn't obliged to provide a cemetery, seems to have finally grasped the nettle that it has a moral obligation to allow people who have lived and contributed to West Lancs to be laid to rest here."