Inflated burial charges for residents forced to live outside their home town are to be scrapped.

A nine-year-old cemetery policy at Adur District Council meant the charge to be buried in Adur for people who had moved outside the district was £750.

If they had stayed in the district until they died the charges would have been £450.

Elderly people who had to be looked after by relatives or at a nursing home in neighbouring districts were penalised for moving away.

There is a shortage of private nursing homes in the district and only two county council homes.

Now councillors have scrapped the extra fees policy, allowing anybody who has lived in Adur to be buried there at the reduced rate.

Councillor Brian Whipp had letters from people in his Southwick ward who were worried when their grandparents moved to nursing homes in Brighton and Worthing.

Coun Whipp said: "It is quite a landmark that we have overturned this cemetery policy.

"I had one letter from residents who were concerned about their grandmother. She had lived away for some months with relatives in the Midlands.

"Their grandmother's husband was buried in Southwick and they wanted her ashes interred with him when she died but found they had to pay the full price, which they thought unfair.

"I wrote to the chief officer at the council and asked if he could use discretion to let them pay the reduced rate. He put it before the council.

"What makes it worse is more and more nursing homes here are closing so more people have to stay outside the district with relatives or in homes.

"It seems there is a correlation between the closure of more homes in the district and the letters of complaint.

"Property values are such that nursing homes make less of a profit than selling them as private housing units so many are being converted."

Adur now has the same policy as Brighton and Hove City Council, which means anyone who has lived there, even if only for a matter of weeks, is entitled to be buried at a reduced rate.

The policy was reviewed during the council's community services committee meeting on March 12, when all seven councillors were unanimous in their decision.

Gill Davidson, matron of South Coast Nursing Homes in Shelley Road, Worthing, has several residents from the Adur district under her care.

She said: "This is such good news. The extra charges were surprisingly steep for people who had moved out of the area."

In Worthing, people who move out of the area prior to their death face burial and interment fees of double the cost.

Those living outside the borough face costs of £620 to be buried and £570 to be interred, whereas residents pay £310 and £285 respectively.