North Somerset Council has struck a deal to privatise its cremation service, which will net it at least £15 million.

But the deal provides no guarantee that the price of cremating loved ones will not escalate sharply.

The authority has agreed a 30-year deal, beginning next April with Dignity Funerals Ltd, the UK's biggest such firm, to operate its crematorium in Weston, three cemeteries across the district and maintain 21 closed churchyards.

No councillors voted against the decision at the council's monthly meeting on Tuesday but disquiet was expressed that no mechanism is in place to regulate fees.

Cllr David Shopland said: "How is the firm going to make a profit? I presume it will have to increase fees?"

Cllr Carl Francis-Pester, executive member for environment and asset management, said a competitive market will keep prices in check.

He said: "Without wishing to sound glib about this sensitive service, if the contractor were to increase prices excessively people would take their custom elsewhere."

There was, he said, already competition from crematoria in Bristol and new services were in the pipeline in Bridgwater.

He said the deal was the best possible outcome for the council and the people of North Somerset. It wouldmodernise the aging Ebdon Road crematorium in Weston.