Dozens of mourners with memorials at a Keighley crematorium have been ordered to remove them from the garden of remembrance.

Bradford Council's Bereavement Service, which owns Oakworth Crematorium, in Wide Lane, has fixed letters to numerous plaques and memorials in the garden ordering them to be removed because they are unauthorised.

As a result the registrar, based at Utley, has been inundated with complaints about the order.

One of the complainants, Eric Robinson, of Dale View Road, Long Lee, said he was unhappy at being forced to remove a plaque in memory of his mother-in-law, which had been in the garden for 12 years.

The 62-year-old said: "At the time, I got permission from the council's bereavement service -- I paid £30 for that plaque. Then there were about six plaques in the garden, now there are about 50." Mr Robinson, along with numerous others, has been given until the end of June to find a new place for his plaque.

He can either pay £40-a-year for a council-approved kerb plaque or look elsewhere.

Mr Robinson said: "We're not going to buy one. It is extortionate. We're just going to have to take it down because we've nowhere else to put it. It's a case of pay for one or nothing."

The enforcement letters follow the story of bereaved Sarah Ingham, of Bracken Bank Grove, Keighley, whose plaques marking the graves of her mother and unborn child were removed from the garden by staff in February.

David Congreve, bereavement service manager for the council, said: "The garden of remembrance is a public area for the disposal of cremated remains where relatives have not made any other arrangement for their disposal, such as in a family grave, or some favourite place. For those who wish to have a memorial, the council can provide plaques mounted on kerbs set around the formal lawn, small grave plots for cremated remains on which a memorial can be placed, or an entry into the book of remembrance. We have received complaints about an increasing number of unauthorised plaques, vases, surrounds and plants which have been placed in the grounds of the garden of remembrance. But there is no objection to cut flowers being laid on the ground.

"We recognise that this action will cause some distress and this is why we have written to owners, where possible, to explain the reasons why we are asking them to remove their unauthorised memorials."