The council has issued a public apology

The practice caused anger in the town as people arrived at cemeteries to tend their loved ones graves only to find them lying on the floor.

The ongoing inquiry is holding the hearing on Tuesday night.

The inquiry team - which includes the Bishop of Stockport and one of town's magistrates - will produce its findings before the end of the year.

Families thought the graves had been vandalised, only to be told they had been flattened by Stockport Council because it felt they were unsafe.

Many of them only found out after going to visit the graves on Mothering Sunday or Easter Sunday this year.

Public apology

The council has already apologised publicly and said it took action to make headstones in its graveyards safer after it was written to by the Health and Safety Executive.

It decided to test the headstones with a simple push test.

Those that fell over were left in place, but some of them were broken in the process.

The authority's parks and recreations manager, Nigel Boswell, has been suspended by the council, but it has refused to confirm whether or not it is in connection with this issue.