A PRIVATELY-owned Oakworth graveyard that has been at the centre of years of controversy has been put up for sale.

The Dockroyd Lane Cemetery has been advertised on property marketing website Rightmove for a guide price of £14,000.

This overgrown site had been owned by the Methodist Church but was sold off to a private buyer at least a decade ago.

Several attempts to gain planning permission to build houses on the land have been refused by Bradford Council.

The Keighley News reported in 2006 about the furious response from Oakworth residents, who said tree-felling work in the graveyard had damaged at least ten gravestones.

Bradford Council took enforcement action against the landowner after the historic cemetery entrance – situated within the Oakworth Conservation Area – was illegally knocked down in September 2008, sparking another storm of protest.

A six-foot-high stone wall, thought to have been about 150 years old, was destroyed, along with pillars and a set of wrought iron gates. The wall and gates have since been rebuilt.

Reacting to news the land has been put for sale, Oakworth ward town councillor, Peter Corkindale, said: "The objections to building on this land remain the same, and I would have thought the Methodist Church would still have a restrictive covenant on that land.

"It might have been a nice thing for the owner to give this land to the council so it can be tided up and people can visit their relatives because there are still people in Oakworth who have relatives buried there.

"As for whoever buys it, it all depends on who they are and what they want the land for. I don't know why they'd want to own it if they can't alter it."

The owner of the land declined to comment on the sale when approached by the Keighley News this week.