"It is not alright and council should just bite the bullet and change it back," he said.
Mr Dahlberg said to drive from Park Street to the cemetery people had to use the service land that was used by cricketers using the oval and people going to the cafe, and did not want to do so.
He said restoring the 100- year-old gates and returning direct vehicle access to the cemetery was " not a big ask."
"So, lets put it right," he said.
Mrs Knight said the Archer Street entrance firstly led to the RSA section and previously allowed families easy access to "honour our war dead".
On site the next morning Mrs Knight and Mr Dahlberg spoke of having family members buried in the cemetery and of the frequency they visited the graves.
The inconvenience caused to them by the entrance alterations were magnified many times over when you took into account how many families were in the same situation.
Mrs Knight said the 400 signatures to the petition were really only the tip of the iceberg because they had been received with minimum publicity.
Many had come from people who contacted her or Mr Dahlberg, knowing they were opposed to the entrance changes but unaware of a petition, and had signed up on learning of it.
Since the changes to the Archer Street entrance had been made three new cremation stones have been installed closer to were the old entrance was - the first in that immediate area since 1972 - and numbers in the concrete indicated plans were afoot to install more even closer to the entrance.
Mr Dahlberg said this could be prevented and the three now there could be re-positioned if council moved now.
He said he estimated only $3000-$4000 would need to be spent to re-install the gates and entranceway.
One of those supporting the petition, Kevin Fearon, said the decision to alter the cemetery entrance had been a "very unpopular action" as evidenced by many letters to the Times-Age.
"Despite repeated requests as to why the entrance to the park and cemetery were combined there has been a deafening silence for council."
He said during the last council term then councillors Jane Terpstra and Lyn Patterson had not endeared themselves to ratepayers by saying "they could virtually do as they pleased and why should council consult ratepayers every time they wanted to turn a stone".
"They were silly and arrogant statements. It is patently obvious council must make most decisions on behalf of ratepayers without consultation.
'But occasionally there is a project that needs input from the general populous and the cemetery gates is such a project," Mr Fearon said. "To interfere with an historic entrance the way council has is tantamount to vandalism and sacrilege.
"Caskets bearing the deceased have passed through that entrance for decades and it was symbolic to drive through those self-same gates to pay respects to departed loved ones.
" I have a son interred in the cemetery and to visit I must now share a busy entranceway along with sportsmen, diners, picnickers and joggers."
