A BITTER three-year row over the flattening of hundreds of gravestones in a Rotherham cemetery could end with a public inquiry.
Campaigners seeking to have the gravestones at Haugh Road cemetery, Rawmarsh, re-instated say their lawyer has formally applied to Rotherham Council for an inquiry.
They are now hopeful the council will agree to the inquiry - and claim that, if i
t doesn't, it must have something to hide.
The row started when more than 200 gravestones in the cemetery were flattened by the council on the grounds they were dangerous.
Since then the council has been carrying out a similar exercise at some of Rotherham's other cemeteries as part of health and safety laws.
But campaigners say they should have been warned what was going to happen to the graves of their loved ones.
Leading protester Cynthia Edwards, aged 63, said: "It might be three years since this all started but people are still very angry.
"It is tragic to go along to the cemetery and see all those stones still lying there and to see elderly people in tears because the graves of their loved ones have been damaged like this.
"Haugh Road was one of the first cemeteries to be affected. Many people can't afford to have their stones put back.
"But we have been told we have a good chance the council will agree to a public inquiry into the whole business."
Relatives of those buried at Haugh Road have already collected 3,000 names on a petition which they have sent to Downing Street, and they are being backed by Wentworth MP John Healey and former Tory leader William Hague.
Their solicitor Jonathan Holgrove said: "We are asking the council to hold a public inquiry, or a council investigation which is open to the public, into what has happened at cemeteries in Rotherham.
"The aim would be to see if the procedures could be improved. The law lays down a series of steps the council must take, but it does not take account of the families."
A council spokesman said: "We appreciate this is a very sensitive subject, but we are governed by national guidelines and we must abide by them."
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