Unsafe headstones in three South Ribble graveyards will be laid flat – unless the families responsible for the memorials make them safe.
South Ribble Borough Council has carried out inspections at the churchyards of St Mary’s in Penwortham, St Leonard’s in Walton-Le-Dale and St. Saviour’s in Bamber Bridge, a meeting of the authority’s governance committee was told.
Any gravestones deemed to be a danger have been marked with a white stake to warn visitors to the sites of the risk, while signs are set to be put in place to advise the owners of the burial plots that they need to take action. If the necessary work is not done, the council will lay the headstones down, face up.
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The authority is responsible for the trio of graveyards, because there is no longer any burial space left in them. Churches can request that the local council takes over their yards once they become full.
In July, a four-year-old boy named Eli Testa was killed after a gravestone fell on him at Rawtenstall Cemetery in Rossendale.
South Ribble Borough Council has not revealed how many headstones it has found to pose a risk, but governance committee member Cllr David Shaw warned that tracking down the grave owners will not be easy – particularly at St. Mary’s. He said a castle used to stand on the site and there were people buried “in what used to be the bailey”.
“It seems to me impossible that you’re going to be able to trace a lot of the families to be able to get the headstones into a safe condition,” said Cllr Shaw, who added that it was a difficult enough task even at more modern graveyards that dated back only as far as the 1960s.
The council’s head of street scene and waste, Chris Walmsley, acknowledged the challenge and explained that much of the information was held by the relevant diocese. However, he said the authority was working with the churches to try to make contact with grave owners.
But Cllr Margaret Smith questioned the adequacy of the process being followed by the council.
“Just to put a white marker on them and a sign…worries the life out of me,” she said.
The former council leader also said it was vital that the authority set a budget for the work that it might have to carry out for itself in the absence of action from grave owners – even if the amount could not be set in stone at this stage.
Director of finance Neil Halton said determining a figure was only possible now that the inspections had been completed and the scale of the potential undertaking could be properly assessed. He said the allocation of the necessary cash was likely to be made “very soon”.
Cllr Smith also warned that the authority might shortly have to take on responsibility for a fourth churchyard – St. Mary’s in Leyland – which she said she understood was close to capacity.
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