Plans have been lodged to transform a disused church into apartments with a car park built on the graveyard.

Relatives of people buried at the Lee Lane United Reformed Church were furious when developers Tony Dixon and Diane Brooks told them to remove the headstones and revealed their plans to flatten the graveyard.

The developers bought the church, which closed in 2005 due to a fall in numbers, in January and said they wanted to transform it into flats or offices.

A planning application has now been submitted to Bolton Council for 11 two-bedroom apartments.

If the proposals get the go-ahead the Neo-Gothic-style church, in Lee Lane, Horwich, will be sympathetically restored to its former glory with little alteration to the building's exterior.

Parking spaces will be organised in a linear pattern within the courtyard, which will be have a stone surface. Planning and highways officers have agreed the proposals are feasible.

Mature trees along the front entrance pathway will be removed.

The Bolton News revealed outline plans earlier this year.

There are 300 people buried in the graveyard and although the last coffin burial was in the early 1970s, urns containing ashes have been buried as recently as 2004.

Three war graves on the site will remain untouched and a landscape memorial garden is also proposed, which will include inscriptions from the headstones upon request and will be open to the public.

Maurice Lawson, who lives in Derbyshire, visited his parents' graves at the weekend. He said: "It's a difficult situation because something needs to be done with the church, but people are concerned about the graveyard. It is important to people that the graves are left as they are."

Ms Brooks said: "We want the church to be a beautiful landmark building for Horwich." The plans will go before Horwich Town Council on April 26.