The above headline appeared in local evening newspaper, The Sentinel, on February 12th 1998 and was the first that most people knew of the Councils actions. There were many more, however, who knew nothing of this until visiting the grave of a loved one to pay their respects and were confronted with the sight of what appeared to be a vandalised cemetery.
More than 100 people turned up at the local Borough Council offices on the Monday morning demanding that action was taken. The council were forced to open up the council chamber and council leader Eddie Boden and head of leisure services John Martin faced the angry families and promised to look into the matter and appeared to recognise that they had made a mistake. The demands of the families were:
- Newcastle Borough Council apologises for their actions
- The memorials are re-erected at the expense of the council
The situation was discussed as part of an emergency item at the next council meeting of Wednesday 18th February where families filled the public gallery. The council formally apologised for the lack of notification but refused to re-instate the memorials. It was as a result of this decision that the Newcastle Cemetery Action Group was formed.
The following weekend local newspaper, The Sentinel, organised a phone poll asking the public whether they thought the council should re-instate the memorials. The results were:
- 1,902 voted that the council should re-instate the graves
- 75 voted that the families themselves should pay for the re-instatement
NCAG (Newcastle Cemetery Action Group) held their first public meeting at local public house, The Bear, on Monday 23rd February, at this meeting, Chairman, Mr Alan Conroy, stated the singular aim of the group, which is: that Newcastle Borough Council re-instate the graves at no cost to the individual families themselves.