‘Apologise over lost memorials’

improvements to the crematorium grounds.

However whilst the council says it wrote almost two years ago to all the people it had on its records to advise them that their kerb plaque lease was due to expire, some may have been overlooked.

Those who were contacted were told that the kerb plaques - or memorials - would be kept for three months.

But Mr Wike, of Fenay Bridge, says the work was not due to take place until next May, and that the lease on his father’s memorial still has several months to run.

“All it would have taken was a bit of admin - a letter or a phone call. But how they’ve gone about it is totally disrespectful.

“If we could get the stone back, that would be great. That stone has had many faces in front of it. People don’t seem to understand how important it is.”

Mr Wike says he and his mother, who lives in Kirkheaton, spent 45 minutes scouring the stones for his father’s memorial, some of which were damaged and scratched.

“Other people had been there before us. The stone weren’t in any order. You are not going to pick them up and throw them around.

“But some were damaged, and needlessly. The mortar that they sat on was very old. You could have knocked them off with a toffee hammer.

“Instead they have smashed them off. Why?

“It was a special day for us, but we walked up there to nothing.”

On Monday a spokesman for Kirklees Council said: “We are making improvements to the area and we contacted all the people on our records as their kerb plaque leases came up - in this case in January 2017 - to let them know about the plans, that their kerb plaque lease was due to expire, and give the option of buying a new lease.

“In the same letter, we told people that we would keep their plaques for three months, however in reality we have kept them much longer. I fully appreciate how distressing this can be for families, and we have attempted to contact all of the families we have records for to try to come to a suitable solution.

“In this case we wrote to the Ogilvie family through the contact name we had, with the aim of avoiding a situation like this, which we regret.”