TORFAEN'S graveyards are almost full - and "urgent decisions" are needed to ensure there is enough burial space by 2005.

A bid by the council to set up a new graveyard to counter rapidly decreasing burial space has been thrown out by the National Assembly. This week the council's director for the environment, Andy Fretter, warned "urgent decisions" must be made before burial space in Cwmbran, Blaenavon and Panteg cemeteries runs out within the next 18 months.

The proposed new graveyard site on Race Farm, at Croesyceiliog, owned by Pontypool Park Estates, was to be acquired by the council through a compulsory purchase order from the National Assembly.

But the plans were rejected after a public inquiry found the proposed site to be unnecessarily large and unacceptably harmful to the viability of the farm.

Mr Fretter played down the defeat at the environment and local Agenda 21 overview and scrutiny committee meeting, saying it was "not a panic situation".

But he added that steps needed to be taken quickly: "We will run out of burial space by November 2005. We need to make some urgent decisions.

"How much land do we really need? We may have to cut cloth to suit what we can actually get hold of," he said.

Mr Fretter said that the council was considering other potential graveyard sites, but did not go into specifics.

He said: "There are alternative sites, but I don't want to mention them in the meeting because wherever we go, someone will be against it. "We need to investigate to see whether these other sites are suitable. In a worst-case scenario, we may have to bid up to £700,000 for some land."

Andrew Morgan, who manages Race Farm, told the Argus: "If the land was taken by the council, there's no way the farm could make that land back up again. We were going to lose valuable grazing ground that couldn't be replaced.

"The council didn't seem to be too concerned about us as farmers - it was like they said 'we're having this land whether you like it or not'." Pontypool Park Estates declined to comment.