A petition calling for burials at the weekends and on bank holidays in Watford has been signed by more than 1,000 people.

Members of the town’s Muslim community, backed by Labour’s parliamentary candidate Councillor Matt Turmaine, queued to sign the petition, launched at three mosques on Friday.

Labour councillor Asif Khan said it was set up after Watford Borough Council “consistently refused” to allow flexible burials – claims denied by Watford’s elected Mayor Dorothy Thornhill.

Councillor Khan said: “Lots of bereaved families who were unable to bury their loved ones cannot understand why the council still doesn’t allow burials on a Sunday or bank holiday.

“It is a religious obligation [for Muslims] upon the family to bury their loved ones at least the day after death.

“A lot of other towns have offered this service but Watford is well behind the times.

“The mayor and the council need to stop paying lip service to this issue. They are failing to serve the community and hopefully this petition will demonstrate the strength of feeling.”

Councillor Khan’s Labour colleague Councillor Nasreen Shah said offering weekend burials is a service that “should be available to everyone”.

Labour claims it would be “cost neutral” to provide weekend and bank holiday burials.

Mayor Thornhill claimed those signing the petition were being “misled” as the council had not rejected weekend burials.

In fact some burials do take place on Saturdays, she said, adding: “There are many waiting weeks to bury a loved one so we are in a very difficult position where it could look as if we are favouring different groups of people.

"We are not insensitive to the need, which is why we always have a spare grave on a Friday to enable a burial on a Saturday.

“The only people disadvantaged are the families of those people who die on a Saturday, who must wait until Monday.

“We have to balance the demand [for Sunday burials] off against [the cost of] having people on standby to work. We are not geared up for that yet. We need to look at all burial issues in the town, not just one.”

Councils do not have a statutory duty to provide a burial service.