A GRIEVING mother forced to listen as her estranged husband murdered her four young sons has won a two-year battle to put up a memorial in their honour.

Samantha Tolley, 30, of Littler Close in Winsford, received the good news this week during a family visit to the North Wales beauty spot where the boys died.

Council bosses confirmed she doesn't need planning permission for the commemorative stone plaque at the Horseshoe Pass, near Llangollen.

Samantha's victory comes after a long battle with council chiefs. In February, the Chronicle reported how she was heartbroken to hear permission for the plaque had been refused, but has now spoken of her satisfaction at getting the memorial erected.

She said: 'It's amazing - at last I will be able to get the plaque here for my lads. The amount of times they used to run up and down these hills - it will be for them. I just don't understand why it has taken so long.'

Dozens of condolence messages and teddy bears have been left at the memorial site by well-wishers.

In March 2003 Samantha's estranged husband Keith Young drove Joshua, seven, Thomas, six, Callum, five, and three-year-old Daniel to North Wales.

The 38-year-old, said to be jealous of Samantha's new relationship, gassed the boys in his Jeep after discovering she was pregnant with another man's baby. Samantha was forced to listen on her mobile phone. Young also died in the fume-filled family car.

At the inquest coroner John Hughes said the case was one of the most harrowing he had ever dealt with.

Last week Samantha took her baby son Morghan to the spot where the memorial has been erected. And she said the four-month-old boy has given her a reason to carry on living.

She said: 'Morghan has helped me an awful lot - when I look at him I can see the boys in him in so many different ways.

'If I didn't have Morghan I wouldn't be here today. He is the only thing that keeps me here - he is what I stay alive for.'

Samantha, who was living near her mother Phylis in Northwich, recently moved back into the old family home which she once shared with Young in Winsford.

She said: I am taking it a day at a time. I have just moved back into the home and have been doing it up. It is hard, there are a lot of memories there - I still expect to see the lads running in and out of the house.

'I just have to give it time and see how it goes. If I can't settle here then I will sell up and move on.'