Letter: Business sense of common burials

ANDREW MULLINS's article ("Pensioners buried in mass graves", 15 November) makes disturbing reading, but not solely from the chosen standpoint of "paupers' graves".

One aspect that the article overlooks is the probability that there are people who would like to take advantage of municipal schemes that can arrange a burial for pounds 135 - albeit in communal graves.

I can't think of any time in at least the past 50 years when I would have seen it as degrading to be buried alongside my fellow human beings. What I do find degrading is the necessity to leave money to be squandered on disposal, when that money could be more usefully spent.

It ought to be possible to opt for just such burials. Apart from anything else, the knowledge that some people actually choose communal burial would remove the perceived stigma attached to those who have no choice.

If municipal authorities cannot undertake such schemes, perhaps there is an opening for private enterprise. If anyone were to start one up, I will be their first advance customer.

GEOFF COGGAN

London SW19