The Isle of Wight Council will be inspecting headstones in Newport, Carisbrooke, Ryde and Ventnor cemeteries this week to ensure memorials are safe. Periodically, the local authority must check the stability of burial ground memorials to ensure they are safe and aren’t likely to fall and hurt someone. The often-heavy memorials will undergo a ‘hand test’, where light pressure is applied to the memorial to check if it moves. This test involves no tools or equipment and is intended to provide support to visual checks that suggest it may be unstable, such as damaged or eroding bonding, movement from the original position, leaning or structural damage or disturbance. Where memorials are found to be loose or pose a risk to members of the public using the cemetery, the memorial will be sensitively placed down alongside the grave. The utmost care and respect will be paid during this inspection. The Council says it does not intend to cause distress to families and friends of the deceased buried in the cemetery. Anyone with questions or feedback can email [email protected].
HEADSTONES BEING CHECKED BY THE COUNCIL TO ENSURE THEY ARE IN A SAFE CONDITION
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How many people have been injured by falling headstones in, for instance, the past 10 years?
Or even 150 years.
An 8 year old boy was killed in a Glasgow cemetery by a falling gravestone. That’s one too many.
Will YOU then pick up the bill of thousands IF or WHEN it occurs? Thought not, so keep it closed. Although my council tax is paid by benefits, others have to pay should this occur.
None… what a little hand push .wow..that’s good health and safety..well done council..
This is such a disrespectful practice to families and deceased all for health and safety nonsense! How on earth could a gravestone fall on someone and cause injury…honestly!!
Most likely none. The council may be worried that they could flatten a woodlouse!
In the whole of the UK, I found one instance in Glasgow in 2015. It was five feet high and unstable, and the boy who died was swinging on it with his friends. Certainly a very rare freak accident.
Tilting your head to one side to see if they are wonky,is a very sought after job,takes years of training,and commands a salary of £50,000 a year dont ya know!
This was done to my grand parents’ grave up north. I paid for the stone in the early 90s to be taken away and cleaned fir the first time since they died in the 1930s. In the early 2000s it was put down again as unsafe. Guess who the characters were that made the decision?
Yep, the same people that had been paid by me to clean it and sort it out. Now, it is hard to find amongst the undergrowth and the only visitors it gets are the local badgers.
Here is an idea…LEAVE THIS STUFF ALONE. ANYONE THAT ENTERS A GRAVEYARD SHOULD BE AWARE THAT THESE ARE FAMILY MEMORIALS. THEY ARE NOT PLAYGROUNDS.
Is that the most important thing on their to do list.
Oh yes. I’m sure half a sausage will come out in support of this too. There’s an election coming up don’t you know?
It’s obviously a grave concern.
why don’t they clean that while there at it
The council are a utter disgrace
Leave them alone let nature do its work you destructive bunch of certains
Fall over and hurt someone indeed.
Get the potholes fixed as they are more likely to hurtca lot of people