Plans for cemetery with 35,000 burial plots divide Lancashire town

More than 3,500 people sign petition opposing plan for cemetery with Muslim funeral parlour and prayer rooms

People rarely move to Oswaldtwistle, locals say. The 11,000 residents of the town outside Blackburn are mostly descendants of miners and textile workers, with some saying the last significant conflict was the 19th-century power-loom riots. But a dispute over a cemetery is now causing division.

The Blackburn billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa - the new owners of Asda - have proposed building a cemetery with up to 35,000 burial plots alongside a Muslim funeral parlour and prayer rooms to allow traditional Muslim burial rites on the site.