Tears of joy were shed last night as Calne Town Council announced that it would not tear up planted flowers and kerbsets on graves at Curzon Street Cemetery.

As of midnight last night councillors vowed to go back to the regulations they agreed should have been enforced as of 2004.

Families who have broken the regulations up to that point have been awarded a reprieve and will be allowed to maintain their loved ones' graves as they are now.

But for the family that sparked the cemetery battle the new rules have been enforced too soon.

Hayley Jenkins, cemetery campaigner for the family of tragic 20-year-old Danny O'Brien, says the rules will leave the family devastated.

Danny O'Brien of Carnegie Mews, Calne died of a neurological virus on December 15 after being rushed into hospital.

It was his family's bid to have a marble memorial and kerbset built on his grave that sparked the controversy surrounding the cemetery.

Calne Town Council immediately sent letters and copies of the regulations to the bereaved families of Calne.

The families were told that if they didn't remove planted flowers, pots, statues, ornaments and kerbsets from the graves they would be removed by the council.

Miss Jenkins, of Prince Charles Drive, said: "Where does that leave us, how can we honour Danny's memory the way we should be able to if these rules are being set straight away?"

Graves must be allowed to settle for nine months before headstones or kerbsets are installed.

Miss Jenkins says that Curzon Street Cemetery was chosen to bury Mr O'Brien because his family believed they would be able to have a kerbset memorial built there.

She said: "I don't know what we'll do now but it can't just end like this."