Britain’s motorways have never felt particularly life-affirming, but they could become even more soulless under proposals to bury the dead alongside major roads to free up room in cemeteries.

Professor John Ashton, former president of the Faculty of Public Health, has called for green burial corridors next to roads, railways and country footpaths.

British graveyards are close to capacity, and with 500,000 deaths in England and Wales each year, it is estimated there will be no more plots left within five years.

To combat the squeeze, Prof Ashton has proposed the creation of rustic cemeteries, similar to those proposed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1711, where corpses would be buried under trees, bushes and flowers, nestled alongside Britain’s infrastructure.

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Prof Ashton, said: “British graveyards and cemeteries are rapidly running out of room and, despite the increasing use of reclaiming graves for further use, matters are likely to come to a head over the next five years.