Plans around the country are being drawn up as it emerges many councils in Scotland are suffering from the same lack of cemetery space problems as Scottish Borders Council (SBC).
SBC has already discussed the matter at Executive meetings, agreeing in principle that that the use of compulsory purchase orders should be used to buy land from landowners to meet the high demand for burial plots in the Borders, with a third of its 150 cemeteries already full. This followed previous negoitations for the purchase of land being unsuccessful.
It now appears the lack of space for the deceased is a nationwide problem, with many other councils in Scotland also struggling to meet demand for burial plots, such as Dumfries and Galloway, North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross, Fife and East Dunbartonshire.
Another strategy not yet used by SBC but has been authorised in Perth and Kinross and East Dunbartonshire is the use of burial plots bought privately years ago but have never been used.
These plots have remained empty for years after their purchase, some 40 years, with the council's believing buyers have been laid to rest elsewhere.
The lack of space at Mortonhall, Edinburgh, has forced the City of Edinburgh Council to announce they shall be opening a new cemetery.
Mortonhall currently has a cematorium, which often has to be used by Borderers with the region currently lacking such a facility.
Despite the executive of SBC deciding to invest more than £800,000 into the development of existing sites over the next ten years, with 12 cemteries identified as needing extensions or additional work to remain open, there as yet are no plans to introduce a cematorium to tackle the burial space problem.
This has angered John Lamont, MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, who called last year for the SNP Scottish Government to produce the funding for a Borders crematorium.
He said: "It is astonishing that there is currently no crematorium in the Borders. The added burden on grieving families to drive all the way up to the Central Belt for a funeral service is unacceptable. Scottish Borders Council, the Presbytery of Jedburgh, Borders funeral directors and many Borderers all agree with me on this matter."
East Berwickshire councillor Jim Fullarton supported the call for the introduction of a crematorium in the Borders at the council executive meeting in February, stating it would help ease the pressure on cemetery space.
Yet, despite accepting the current difficulties within the walls of Borders cemeteries, SBC leader David Parker said there were no plans as yet to create a crematorium.
Mr Parker said: "We do have problems with various cemeteries and churchyards, and with burial space in general.
"A crematorium would certainly help alleviate the problem and I would definitely welcome any developments in that area. There have been a lot of discussions over the last few years and there are private investors interested at the moment but no formal applications have been submitted as yet."