A CANDLELIT vigil is to take place outside the Houses of Parliament on the day a 35,000 signature petition against the destruction of Cherry Lane Cemetery is handed to the Government.

Campaigners against a 3rd runway at Heathrow will hold the vigil at Westminster at 6pm on Wednesday (11).

The event has been organised by the Save Cherry Lane Cemetery campaign and will be held in Parliament Square shortly before the three Hillingdon MPs present the petition.

There are fears Cherry Lane Cemetery, in Shepiston Lane, would be under threat if a 3rd runway were built at Heathrow as a key approach road to the new runway may go through the cemetery.

The campaigners will be joined by members of HACAN and from NoTRAG (the No Third Runway Action Group).

Spokeswoman for the cemetery campaign, Edna La Mothe, whose husband is buried at Cherry Lane, said: "The signatures have been collected in just nine months. It is amazing that so many signatures have been collected in so little time.

"It shows the strength of feeling that the dead will speak from beyond the grave and be heard. The majority of us did not have a voice during the 'consultation' period, as the map showing the road through the cemetery was not readily available to all the residents affected by this.

"Campaigners believe that loved ones at Cherry Lane Cemetery have been treated with irreverence and mourners with contempt. The vigil is to redress that wrong.

"We are gathering peacefully to honour those who have gone before us, and to demonstrate that the fire inside us to preserve our cemetery would never be extinguished.

"BAA has said that the road is only one of the options it is looking at and that it will not be built, but they refuse to withdraw the map showing the road through the cemetery.

"We can have no real reassurance that our loved ones are safe until the plans for a third runway are abandoned."