A ROW has erupted over paving stones - or rather the lack of them.

Thieves made off with large Yorkstone slabs from Bryan Road, Edgerton, this month - and Kirklees Council promptly nabbed the rest.

Then workmen put tarmacadam down in their place.

Council bosses say they cannot afford to keep replacing the valuable stones.

But the man who reported the theft is fuming that the rest of the distinctive stones have been removed.

Stephen O'Loughlin, of Marsh, noticed the paving stones had disappeared and immediately told Kirklees, expecting the council to replace them.

He was shocked when he returned to the tree-lined side road to find tarmacadam had been laid.

The freelance journalist, who has written for The Economist magazine and several national newspapers, said: "I was always under the impression this was a conservation area and things had to be kept as they are.

"Replacing these stones with tarmacadam does not fulfil that.

"It is clearly not in keeping with the surrounding areas. If someone demolished one of the homes there would be legal proceedings. So why can Kirklees get away with it?

"If they had laid some new stones and cemented them in properly it would have been far more difficult to remove them."

Now Mr O'Loughlin wants the stones returned.

He added: "If someone shoplifts something the store manager does not take every one of those items from the shelves.

"Just because something gets stolen does not mean we should all have to suffer. But that is what is happening.

"What happens now? Do the stones get sold? Or do they go somewhere else? If so, why should another area get Edgerton's stones?"

A Kirklees Highways spokesman said the stones were in storage but could be used elsewhere.

He added: "We have replaced a section of paved footway with tarmacadam after repeated thefts of the stone.

"When stone flags are replaced they are cemented down, but this does not stop them being stolen.

"We cannot afford to indefinitely replace stolen paving slabs.

"Our records show this section of the footway is not in a conservation area."