Cemeteries could fall into disrepair unless a cash-strapped council can stump up £1m.

A Swale Borough councillor said the authority could consider hitting residents with a special one-off tax to help maintain 21 full graveyards.

A community figurehead branded laws placing old burial grounds into the hands of local authorities as “unfair and totally out of date”.

Cllr Richard Palmer (Swale Ind.) said the situation is a “ticking time bomb” with potential to become “crippilingly expensive”.

“It’s the council tax payers who are paying to maintain a Church of England church wall or churchyard,” he explained.

“It has the potential to be cripplingly expensive, and ultimately the people who are paying for it aren’t the council, because the council has no money – the only money the council has is what the council tax payers of Swale give to us.

“So it’s the council tax payers who are paying to maintain a Church of England church wall or churchyard.

“The council could issue a special expenses on the budget and say it is for the repair of the churchyards under the 1853 Burial Act, and it’s going to cost every resident £10 a year.”

Under the act, dioceses can pass full cemeteries into the financial control of local authorities for upkeep, which they must accept.

Chairman of SBC’s community committee, Cllr Richard Palmer (Swale Ind.) wrote to local MP Gordon Henderson in November last year, asking for a review of the law.

“The estimated total of all the 21 churchyards is well in excess of £1m and this is on top of the on-going annual costs of the grounds maintenance contract for cutting grass and tending to planting,” he wrote.

“Swale Borough Council, like a number of local authorities, is under extreme financial pressures as a result of its post Covid recovery position and increasing service costs and therefore is not in a position to fund the remaining works at the current time.”

Of the 21 burial grounds in need of work, two are in or around Faversham.

The churchyards of St Mary of Charity church, in Faversham, and that of St Peter's and St Paul's, Ospringe, are both in need of maintenance.

It is compulsory for dioceses to transfer full cemeteries to councils for upkeep, according to a recent report by the authority.

“(It is) not dependent on the condition of the churchyard in question, and not dependent on the local authority's ability to meet the additional maintenance costs,” the papers says.

Cllr Mike Henderson (Lib Dem) told a public meeting at Swale House, Sittingbourne, on June 27 the system is “unsustainable”.

“It is clear that this whole setup, the whole current system, is unfair, totally out of date – it’s been running for 175 years – and unsustainable in the longer term future.”

The community committee voted to lobby local MPs to find a solution, despite the government minister Lee Rowley MP reiterating to Mr Henderson that “unwelcome as such a cost may be for local authorities, they offer the only realistic source of funding that we think is feasible if the churchyard is not to become overgrown and fall into decay.”

After the meeting, committee’s chairman Cllr Palmer, said: “The council’s facing a squeeze on its finances and it's come to a head because several churches needed maintenance, needed this and that, and it’s becoming quite a phenomenal amount.”

He argued the Church of England or government should provide support to district councils to maintain churchyards.

And he said specialists are needed to maintain the historic burial sites and that, over time, maintenance costs will likely increase.

“It could be a ticking time bomb,” Cllr Palmer said.

He stressed an additional fee on council tax would be a last resort, but as the council has a legal duty to keep the cemeteries in shape, it could be necessary

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Canterbury said: “The Diocese of Canterbury is responsible for a range of properties across east and mid-Kent.

“We are always willing to engage with neighbours, councils and organisations when there are questions of ownership or maintenance.”