By Geoff Fox
LOCAL authorities were today warned they must make every effort to avoid the "official vandalism" of cemeteries by the large-scale laying down of gravestones during safety checks.
The local government ombudsmen of England and Wales h
ave said laying flat large numbers of "lawn memorials" as a result of safety testing is "unlikely to be appropriate" and is almost always avoidable.
Their inquiry was triggered by a number of tragic deaths in graveyards, including that of six-year-old Reuben Powell who died instantly when a 5ft-high gravestone collapsed on top of him at the Grove Road cemetery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in July 2000.
The HSE subsequently served an improvement notice on Harrogate Borough Council which began laying dangerous gravestones flat following the accident.
But the large scale laying flat of headstones undertaken by Harrogate and many other councils triggered outrage among people visiting relatives' graves.
Outrage
Local Government Ombudsman Jerry White called on councils to strike a balance between "public safety and public outrage. "
He said: "We recognise that certain memorials pose an immediate danger with a high risk of injury.
"Others may display a degree of instability without the same degree of risk, perhaps because of their size and or location. We hope that, through issuing this advice, councils will recognise that action other than large-scale laying down will almost always be the most appropriate remedy."
Guidance issued by the ombudsmen also recommends it would be "good practice" for councils to inform the bereaved where they are contactable before such safety checks are carried out.
The guidance comes after a public outcry in recent years after hundreds of headstones were laid flat in cemeteries.
Tests in cemeteries found that less than 10 per cent of Victorian memorials failed safety checks, but about a third of lawn memorials – the most common memorial since the 1950s – were found to be unstable.
geoff.fox@ypn.co.uk
