Safety risk in cemetery

Now Rother council considers the toppled stones themselves pose a safety threat and is planning to bury them in the ground.

Rother dealt the early Christmas news last year requesting relatives to refix the memorials but hundreds of owners have not been traced and officers fear visitors may trip and fall over.

At next Monday's cabinet meeting, councillors are expected to give the go-ahead for the headstones to be laid flush in the ground at a cost of 8000 for both Bexhill and Rye cemeteries.

The council feels this action is the only safe bet to avoid possible compensation claims should someone trip over the laid down stones.

Council leader Graham Gubby said they could either just cover the risk and accept something might happen and if some old lady fell over and broke her hip and sued them or not.

"We think it more appropriate to tidy up the churchyard and make the actual grave surfaces flat with the surface so they can be maintained properly and therefore there is no risk to children or older people falling over."

Rother commissioned consultants Zurich Municipal Insurers to safety test memorials and although these checks have been completed in the council's cemeteries, four churchyards managed by Rother have yet to undergo the push test because the Diocese of Chichester is withholding permission in favour of another method of testing.

At the time Rother's head of amenities Alwyn Roebuck said faulty stones were not pushed over but carefully laid flat to make them safe.

He said as landowners they had a duty to make sure the site was safe for use and that the Health and Safety Executive had strict guidelines on memorial safety.

To avoid future problems of deteriorating memorials becoming a risk to public and ground staff, the council is also proposing to impose ten yearly safety checks at the owners' cost by approved monumental masons.

Officers share the concern nationally of the quality of work carried out on memorial stones which has led to some relatively new stones failing the safety test.

In future all masons wishing to work in the council's cemeteries or churchyards will have to be part of the Monumental Masons Registration Scheme.

Previously requests made for a memorial in the cemetery for loved ones buried elsewhere have been turned down as it would use up the limited land available for burials.

However, the cabinet is also proposing that in future these requests are met by allowing memorials to be laid in banks and kerbs unsuitable for ground burial.

Space at both the council owned cemeteries is running out and councillors are being asked to agree to extending the Bexhill site into adjoining land which is currently used for grazing.

The land is not owned by the council and officers are suggesting it considers a compulsory purchase order to protect its interest as nearby Ashdown Brickworks has also shown a desire to use the area for stock piling clay.