WIDER crematorium furnaces will have to be built across Britain to cater for "stouter clients" as the obesity epidemic increases pressure on public services, the Local Government Association has warned.

Figures show 1million children will be obese by 2012 and social services will increasingly have to intervene in cases of "dangerously overweight" children.

The report said coffins usually measure 40 to 50 centimetres across. Lewisham council in London has ordered a 112-centimetre cremator from America. A new furnace, which can take coffins a metre wide, was recently installed by Kings Lynn & West Norfolk council.