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Memorial Testing
SAFETY TESTING OF MEMORIALS AND HEADSTONES Following a series of incidents across the country where people have been injured or killed by falling memorials, the Health and Safety Executive requires memorials to be safety tested. Barnstaple Town Council has a statutory duty to ensure that visitors, contractors and staff within Bear Street Cemetery are not at risk and introduced a memorial testing programme in 2006.
The specialist testing consisted of three stages: - Visual inspection that identifies those memorials that are too dangerous to test manually. Manual test to identify headstones that may not withstand the machine test. Machine test using specialist equipment which allows the inspector to exert force to the top of the headstone.
All the staff involved with inspections have received full training from the Institute of Cemeteries and Crematorium Management regarding the correct procedures of the inspection process.
In the meantime every effort was made by the Council to identify and contact the owners of memorials which had failed the test so that repairs could be carried out. Memorials that had failed testing were temporarily made safe using wooden stakes and banding for a period of 12 months. After the original 12 months had passed the Council agreed to re-stake the remaining unsafe memorials and give the owners a further 6 months in which to carry out repairs.
Unfortunately, despite these efforts a significant number of unsafe memorials remain to be repaired, and the Town Council has had to take the difficult decision to lay these headstones down flat, in the interests of safety. A spokesperson for the Town Council said "we appreciate that this action may cause concern and apologise for any distress but the council must comply with current Health and Safety requirements and the Local Authorities' Cemeteries Order 1977 for everyone's safety. We will write again to the owners of the memorials, in the hope that they will arrange for the repairs to be done by approved stonemasons before the 1st April".
If anyone would like more information regarding the testing of memorials or if you have any information concerning the ownership of a headstone which as been identified as unsafe please contact Tracey Weaver, Cemetery Manager on 01271 373311.
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