A FUNERAL director is hoping to add funeral pyres to his list of send-offs in the North-East.

Carl Marlow, the owner of Go As You Please, already offers alternative services, including torch-lit processions and burials at sea.

Now he is aiming to be the first in the country to offer a service in which bodies are burned on wooden pyres, and has identified potential sites in Northumberland and County Durham.

But the 38-year-old's plans could come to nothing after a Department for Constitutional Affairs spokesman said last night that the 1930 Cremation Act prevented funeral pyres.

Mr Marlow, who set up his business because of his disappointment at his mother's funeral, said he had found three sites at former quarries in the Derwentside district of County Durham.

Mr Marlow, whose firm has branches in the Wallsend and Whitley Bay areas of North Tyneside, is now in discussions about securing potential sites.

He said: "They are on private land and are in isolated locations. The services will be private - for families and friends."

Local planning authorities admit they have never come across such a proposal before and could not find any precedents.

Mr Marlow said: "In the past, funerals were a celebration of someone's life and we need to get back to that.

"My mother's funeral service did not reflect her one little bit and I was left very disappointed and that's why I set up this venture."

He added that he expected a court test case would be needed to determine the legality of such a venture.

He admitted there could be a concern over the possibility of emissions of toxins, such as mercury from people's fillings, but he has already got the services of a dentist who would be able to remove any fillings beforehand.

The spokesman from the Department for Constitutional Affairs said the 1930 law stated: "No cremations of human remains shall take place except in a crematorium, of the opening of which notice has been given to the Secretary of State."