Families’ fury as council cemetery bosses tear down ‘dangerous’ headstones over 18 inches high in health and safety purge on 50,000 grave
- Knee-high headstones were knocked down at three cemeteries in Scarborough
- Council workers carried out ‘topple’ safety checks without letting families know
- Instead, grieving relatives thought yobs had vandalised their loved one’s graves
- Some families now face bills of up to £1,000 to repair damage to the headstones
Heartbroken families are furious at council cemetery bosses for tearing down any ‘dangerous’ headstone over 18 inches high in a health and safety purge on 50,000 graves.
Mourners tending the final resting places of relatives at first believed the plots had been vandalised by yobs.
But tiny stickers attached to the headstones told the flabbergasted families their memorials had been uprooted and laid on the ground by council workmen.
Dawn Jordan, 52, from Scarborough, only learned the headstone commemorating her mother, Bridie Jordan, 61, who died in 2003, sister Karen Jordan, who died aged 36 in 2000, and another loved one buried in the same plot, had been uprooted when she saw the rows of flattened headstones on Facebook.
She said: ‘I was gutted. It is not very nice seeing your loved ones’ memorial pushed over.
‘I just think it’s disgusting that they can just push these over without consulting anyone. A lot of people are very upset. There was a row of overturned graves near my family’s.’
Council cemetery bosses at three sites in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, targetted graves during a health and safety campaign, which saw ‘dangerous’ headstones over 18 inches tall being knocked down. without families being told first. Pictured is an aftermath at a cemetery
Some headstones, like this one belonging to Roy Kellett, were destroyed during the health and safety checks
The memorial of Bridie Jordan (pictured), who was laid to rest at a Scarborough cemetery where the council have topple-tested, was knocked down, leaving her daughter Dawn Jordan furious
Safety checks were introduced in British cemeteries years ago to stop hefty memorials falling on people and killing them.
But many of the stones targeted at three cemeteries in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, were little over knee height and relatives are seething.
According to official guidance, the so-called ‘topple tests’ are meant to involve workmen standing next to memorials and pushing them to see if they are unsteady.
But pictures shared on social media have revealed any headstone over 18 inches tall has been targetted. In some cases, the bases are still in the ground and workmen have wrenched off the plaques, breaking the corners off.
Home Office rules make clear relatives should be properly informed if their loved ones’ graves are disturbed.
But Scarborough Borough Council bosses have been accused of ignoring families, who only found out what had happened when they arrived to lay flowers or read about it on Facebook.
The checks, which the council say involve subjecting any memorial over 18 inches tall to a ‘gentle push’, have taken place at three of the town’s cemeteries, including Woodlands where Jimmy Savile lies in an unmarked plot after his elaborate triple headstone was removed and sent to landfill in 2012.
Relatives will be charged £330 for stone masons to put the headstones back up but families face bills of more than £1,000 to replace those which have been broken while being dismantled.
Dawn added: ‘I have to get in touch with the stone masons the Crematorium have told me to use and they have to go look at the grave and give me a quote on how much it will cost to re-erect the gravestone.
‘We have no idea how much it will cost yet. But I have heard from others that they have had quotes for around £300.
‘I understand the council’s reasoning for it but the fact that there has been no correspondence and you get to hear and see what has happened on Facebook is out of order.
‘I really couldn’t tell you if there was anything wrong with the stone because the last time I was there was Christmas. But my brother was there last week and it was still upright and he said he didn’t notice any problems with it. It is only about two and half foot high anyway.’
The tests have caused outrage on social media. Kate Jenkinson said: ‘I am amazed. I never thought a gravestone to be that dangerous. They are not huge, and no one touches them surely. Children certainly shouldn’t be playing around them.’
Families say they were given no warning by Scarborough Borough Council that graves were being ‘topple-tested’ by workers
The council says the checks involve subjecting any memorial over 18 inches tall to a ‘gentle push’. Large signs – like this one – were left on the headstones that ‘failed’ the tests
Pictures shared on social media have revealed any headstone over 18 inches tall has been targetted. In some cases, the bases are still in the ground and workmen have wrenched off the plaques, breaking the corners off. Pictured are some of the graves tested by council workers
Betty Smith commented: ‘Wow I’ve never seen this before….seems very blunt when dealing with a loved ones resting place.’
Deborah Newlove added: ‘The council have a record of who owns the plot so why are they not writing to the owner? I only looked at one section today and half of them had a label on to ring up. Think there will be a lot.’
Jayne Needham posted: ‘I think it’s awful and disrespectful to bang a sticker on a memorial! As someone said, I’m sure they could have just contacted people instead of wading in and destroying the resting places of peoples loved ones.’
Scarborough Borough Council said: ‘A sensitive audit of memorial stones in our three cemeteries to check they are stable and don’t pose a safety risk to people that visit the cemeteries and the staff that work in them, began in July and is continuing.
‘Communications were carried out from early June to give people plenty of notice of the work. This included writing directly to grave owners where known, putting up signs in the cemeteries, which are still in place, and an article in the June edition of our digital newsletter, Residents’ News, which goes to around 40,000 subscribers.
‘We also shared a news release with print, online and broadcast media, placed information booklets at local stonemasons, added a digital version of the booklet to our website and put information on our social media channels.
‘After inspection, the headstones which are laid down or are in need of attention have signs attached telling people to contact us if they have any queries.’
The digital booklet states: ‘Contact with the last known grave owner will be made, if the information held is less than 30 years old. We will not write to anyone where the information is older than this, because we have no way of knowing if the owner has since died themselves and would not wish to distress relatives in this respect.
‘The council is responsible for 3 cemeteries, with over 50,000 headstones and memorials. Some of these are in a poor condition and have the potential to cause danger.
‘We will apply a proportionate approach to testing in each cemetery which will mean that any book, rest or footstone less, than 18 inches in height, will not be tested.’
In 2009, a Panorama investigation claimed UK councils had wasted millions on the ‘topple tests’ which only showed an ‘over-zealous’ approach to health and safety and in many cases had damaged the memorials.
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