Archaeologists have been consulted over fears that work on the Bingley Relief Road could disturb an old burial site.

A Highways Agency spokesman said although the exact location of the graves could not be confirmed, a team of officers would be monitoring construction of the road.

Archaeologists were consulted amid fears contractors working in Crossflatts could be digging up a Quaker cemetery.

Colin Slingsby is worried that four graves attached to the former Friends Meeting House could be disturbed and has called for the graves to be properly exhumed.

Mr Slingsby, 30, of Ryelands Avenue, Eldwick, has researched the area and believes that where work has started near Sleningford Terrace, Quakers were once buried.

He said: "Would the Highways Agency carry on regardless if nobody had said anything? They need exhuming, there are at least four graves there."

A chapter in a 100-year-old book entitled Chronicles of Old Bingley, by H. Speight, refers to the 17th Century meeting house for Quakers.

It says: "The Friends had a burial ground at Crossflatts and used to meet for divine worship in an old house still standing at Crossflatts.

"Their burial ground was close by, but I cannot hear that more than four grave stones have ever been observed."

But Edna Woodhouse, clerk of Bradford Quaker Meeting House, who was contacted by the Highways Agency about the matter, said there was no evidence of a graveyard.

She said: "I know even in 1915 there were allotments on that site. I looked at old maps but there was not a graveyard of that period. The engineers would be aware if there was one."

She added cemeteries in Undercliffe, Idle and Cleckheaton had sections for Quakers, where any graves could be moved to if found.

Dr Gary Firth, one of the founders of Bingley History Society, said: "I've not heard anything about a graveyard other than what is in Speight."

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said the exact location of the graves could not be confirmed but it was not thought they were along the route of the road. He added engineers would monitor the site.