Plans have been approved for a burial ground with more than 2,500 graves between Hinckley and Barwell.

Heart of England Co-operative Society has been granted permission to develop a 2.2 hectare site off Hinckley Road in Barwell, which would include a 45 space car park.

The lots will be divided into 1,637 traditional plots, 430 multi-faith plots, 507 woodland plots and a children’s burial area, with a memorial garden in the middle.

Vehicles will access the site from Hinckley Road with a set of speed bumps to be re-positioned to move them away from the junction.

The grounds will feature a pond and water garden to the north of the site, near the road entrance.

The new burial ground could be built in Hinckley Road, Barwell

A footpath will link the ground to the Tweeds River Play Park to the East of the site.

Currently, the site is used for farmland, and it would be bordered by a field and the A47 to the south and open fields to the west.

The burial ground is part of a larger approved scheme for a 5.6 acre site at Crab Tree Farm, with an estate of 25 new homes to be built to the east of the resting place.

Heart of England owns the land, with land agents Harris Lamb currently selling off the area where the houses are to be built.

The burial ground will be very near a crematorium on the A47 between Hinckley and Earl Shilton, which is due to be built next year.

The council-run facility will provide for some 750 funerals a year and will be the fifth of its kind in Leicestershire, with facilities already operating in Leicester, Loughborough, Great Glen and Countesthorpe.

There is a further crematorium just over the county border in Nuneaton.

The cost of the project – around £4.6 million – is being paid for out of the council’s capital budget, money which can only be spent on large projects, not for providing day to day services.

Former council leader, Mike Hall, said : “Getting planning permission for our plan is an important step for us to provide a crematorium service for our community.

“I hope we shall soon be starting the development and look forward to the facility opening as soon as possible.”