PET owners could soon have the opportunity to bury their furry friends at an American-style pet cemetery in Enfield.

If it is given the go-ahead by planners, it will be a first for London.

In a report to next week's planning committee, council officers have recommended that the cemetery is granted planning permission.

The application to build a pet cemetery on farm land north of Severn Drive, off Great Cambridge Road, has been made by a Cheshunt based company called Forty Meadows. Currently the nearest one to Enfield is in Cambridge.

The proposal is for a building which will include a preparation room, crematorium room and office. Permission has already been given for the site to be used as a garden of remembrance.

The cemetery will offer pet lovers two types of cremation: one where the pet is cremated with others and the ashes scattered in the grounds and another where the pet is cremated on its own and the ashes put in a casket, placed in the ground and covered with a memorial plaque.

A council spokesman said: "The latest planning application will be subject to strict planning guidelines and a number of conditions regarding access, health and environmental issues."

Barry Smitherman from Enfield Wildlife Rescue Centre welcomed the scheme. He said: "I think pet cemeteries are a very good idea. We use one in Cambridge for our own pets and a lot of our volunteers have done the same. We find that it is a very good way to do the right thing by your animal."

David Tyson, former president of the British Veterinary Association, said: "Pet cemeteries are not very common. There are pet crematoria and lots of people opt for individual cremation with ashes.

"I don't see anything wrong with them and I think it is well known that the grieving process is exactly the same for pets as it is for a human being. Therefore it is appropriate dealing with the body by burial or cremation. It is very important as part of the grieving process."

Nick Ricketts, chairman of the Association of Private Pet Cemeteries and Crematoria, warned that a new landfill directive threatened to place waste disposal conditions on pet cemeteries.

He added: "I think whatever is done at the time of enormous grief to help the bereaved get back to a normal sort of life is all right if it helps them."

And Jeremy Lamb, a vet at Goddard Veterinary Group in Green Street, Enfield Highway, said: "A lot of people want ashes back so they can bury them in the garden. We only had three or four people who wanted their pets to be buried last year."

But owners wishing to join their deceased pets will be disappointed - the site will only be used for domestic animals.

The council scrapped its own pet cemetery scheme last year because of legal difficulties.

The scheme will be put before Enfield Council's planning committee.