Anger as Whitley Bay graves deemed unsafe

Aug 3 2008 Sunday Sun

HEALTH and safety officers have been slammed after more than 100 gravestones in one cemetery were removed from their plinths and part-buried.

The work has been carried out in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, as part of a national clampdown on memorials regarded as dangerous following a spate of accidents . . . including eight deaths in 10 years.

Although council officials were unable to give an exact figure, it is believed at least 100 headstones in Whitley Bay have been flattened or part-buried.

Many more headstones in cemeteries across the country face the threat of similar action if relatives do not pay for repair work themselves.

In North Tyneside alone, around 30,000 headstones are to be checked. Of 11,000 tested so far, about 2500 have failed.

But Conservative councillor Michael McIntyre, from Whitley Bay, accused council officials of showing a “callous disrespect for the bereaved”.

He said: “I don’t think these headstones are dangerous at all. Most of them are fairly new and not even very big.

“For the effort that will have gone into doing this, they could have even had the headstones re-fixed. As it is, many of these headstones have been ripped from their plinths and half-buried. It looks terrible. A lot of families will be appalled when they see what has happened.”

A North Tyneside Council spokesman defended the work. He said: “We have to strike a balance between public safety and the sensitivity families feel about the graves of their loved ones.

“For that reason, we placed notices in the local press and at each of our cemeteries, well in advance of the work.

“The survey involves inspections and topple tests of all memorials and immediate action to make safe any unstable memorials.

“The families are then informed where attention is needed and a follow-up test is carried out. Some of the memorials have been dug into the ground so that they are safe, but remain upright.”

It is believed that all 452 local auth- orities in England, Wales and Scotland are facing similar problems after tougher standards were brought in five years ago.

Tim Morris, chief executive of the Institute of Cemetery and Cremation Management, said: “If councils don’t do anything and there is an accident, they are damned.

“They can carefully lay a memorial flat or they can bury it by at least a third of its height.

“It can then simply be lifted out of the ground and re-fixed if the owner wishes. It is a way of preserving the memorial in a sensitive manner.”