Headstone Safety

It is a little known fact that many local councils are spending millions of pounds every year to relocate or flatten ageing gravestones that are being deemed as a risk to graveyard workers or members of the public visiting the site.

Directives have been issues to many local councils to ensure that headstones placed in graveyards under there jurisdiction do not pose a health and safety risk. As a result inspectors have been sourced to visit and assess many burial sites.

Some believe that over the coming years well over one hundred thousand historic headstones will be flattened or relocated.

However many observers see this activity as a waste of local tax payers money as the actually risk of injury or death is so small. Others see the compulsory act of lowering or moving a graves as grossly disrespectful to the deceased and their families. There are also concerns about the impact of these measures as graveyards form an intrinsic part of the local landscape and provide a vital historical reference point.

Many new gravestone are now sold with insurance against third party liability and both erection methods and regulation have been greatly improved in recent times. However this does not address the problem of ageing stones and how to deal with them.

Help My Mobility 13th November 2008.