An independent burial service which will be cheaper to join than most synagogue schemes is set to go ahead after plans for a new cemetery were approved this week.

Hertsmere Council had originally rejected the proposal to open it on the site of the A1 Shooting Ground, on the outskirts of north-west London, which lies in green-belt land.

But the Planning Inspectorate has overturned the decision and now given a green light to developers, the Country Group, who have bought the site.

The new burial service intends to offer subscriptions for as little as £240 a year - less than half the cost of some existing synagogue-based burial schemes.

It will also not require synagogue membership, which costs an additional several hundred pounds a year.

Simon Patnick, County Group chief executive, said: "It will give people a choice for burial rights they haven't had for generations before.

"We expect the facility to be ready early next year and we are going to start marketing it in the summer."

The 14-hectare site will have space for up to 7,000 graves, with "room for expansion at a later stage", he said.

It will be under the religious direction of Rabbi Levi Sudak, of Edgware Lubavitch, who said he was " very excited" about the development.