Friends of the late singer Dorothy Squires are boycotting her funeral because of a rift with her family.

Devoted fan Esme Coles, who let Miss Squires live in a four-bedroom house rent-free for the last three years of her life, will not go to the funeral service tomorrow because it is being held in Port Talbot.

Friends say it goes against Miss Squires's wishes that the service is being held 50 miles from the singer's final home at Trebanog, Mid Glamorgan.

Mr Michael Thornton, a friend for 34 years, said: ''I have decided not to attend because I do not like what is going on or the behaviour of certain people.

''Dorothy Squires herself would most emphatically not have wanted her funeral to take place in Port Talbot, a town she had not even visited for seven years and of which she did not retain happy memories.''

Dorothy Squires died on April 14 of lung cancer at Llwynypia NHS Hospital, Mid Glamorgan, South Wales. She was 83.