The case of an Oxfordshire couple who exhumed their six-year-old son's ashes after a row over crematorium prices has led a national political party to demand tough new rules for the funeral industry.

Grieving Peter and Margaret Green re-buried their son Colin's ashes in another cemetery after removing them from the grounds of Oxford Crematorium last year, 24 years after he died.

The couple, of Evans Court, Kidlington, were so furious that they took the matter up with local Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris and together lobbied the party's trade and industry chief to develop a policy to prevent such tragic cases in the future. Last night, the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton adopted such a policy, which called for a code of practice and a licensing and registration system for funeral directors, cemeteries and crematoria.

It also calls for new rules governing ownership and charges and a new system of regulating takeovers of such services.

Mr and Mrs Green welcomed the policy - and called on the Government to listen.

Mr Green said: "This is very encouraging - but we still feel frustrated that nothing positive has happened.

"We have had hundreds of letters of support. Everyone is saying how bad the situation is, but no-one seems to have done anything about it. He added: "We need legislation to control the funeral industry, with an independant ombudsman to moniter practices and legislation to prevent monopolisation and control prices."

"So many people are suffering. The last 18 months have been hell."

The Greens' nightmare began after Oxford Crematorium was taken over by the Texas-based Service Corporation International in 1994.

Last year SCI sent a letter to the couple, whose son died of a rare liver disease in 1973, asking for them to renew their lease to a 20-year one at cost of £485, more than twice the previous charge.

They were also urged to spend £3,000 on a memorial garden for the whole family as they could not be laid to rest beside their son because only two plaques could be laid side by side.

Rather than foot the bill, the couple got Home Office approval to re-bury their son in a Kidlington churchyard. They told the Oxford Mail earlier this year SCI had caused them "untold heartache" and had brought back the grief of the child's death.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Dr Harris said: "I am delighted the Liberal Democrats have backed a tough policy to regulate the funeral, crematorium and cemetery industry.

"We were at risk of a few firms developing a monopoly.

"This first came to my notice when the Greens contacted me to tell me how they had been forced to disinter their son's remains from Oxford Crematorium.

"They bravely took the issue up with me and with the party nationally.

"The vote at the conference commits the Liberal Democrats to pressing the Government for tough new regulations to prevent any repeat of their tragic case."

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