AN ANGRY York family has hit out at staff at the city's crematorium, claiming they removed a memorial cross to their much-loved "matriarch" from the place where her ashes were scattered.

Long-term York resident Gladys Darley died, aged 94, just over two years ago.

She was cremated at Bishopthorpe Crematorium, and her ashes were scattered in the grounds.

About six months ago, family members placed a small wooden cross in the crematorium's grounds in Gladys's memory.

But when 18-year-old great-granddaughter Michelle Darley visited the crematorium recently, she was unable to find the cross.

She went into the office to speak with staff, and found that the cross had been, in her words, "chucked in a box like it was lost property". Staff told her it was taken out "because it hadn't been bought from the crematorium".

She said: "I was really upset and angry and I thought they were really rude to me.

"I don't see why they needed to be like that. They didn't even let us know they were taking the cross out, and it was a real shock to get there and find it had gone."

Gladys's granddaughter, Julie Richmond, said she was "surprised and appalled" by the way crematorium staff dealt with the situation.

"In the job they are doing they are dealing with people's feelings and the way they behaved left us both completely gutted," said Julie, of Highthorn Road, Huntington.

Dick Haswell, City of York Council regulation unit manager, said the size of the grounds at York Crematorium meant a strict policy of "memorialisation" had to be followed.

He said: "Our grounds are small compared with other crematoriums and we have to manage them very carefully.

"So we try to regularise the type of memorials. In terms of where things are put we have to be very careful about the way the grounds are laid out," said Mr Haswell.

He admitted things were removed "on occasion."

But he said he was unable to comment on whether the only memorials allowed were those bought direct from the crematorium.

"The incident is being investigated," he said.

- The memorial cross has now been placed in the grounds of Hollybank House sheltered housing complex, in Holgate Road, where Gladys lived from the mid-1970s until she died.

Updated: 11:28 Thursday, February 21, 2002