The work is required as we have an obligation to provide and maintain safe cemeteries. Tragically, there have been incidents in other areas where children have been killed by falling memorials whilst playing in other cemeteries, and some of the memorials in our cemeteries could be unsafe due to lack of maintenance or general deterioration.
Because of this the Health and Safety Executive require safety work to be carried out regularly so that our cemeteries remain safe places to visit and to work in.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a central government enforcement agency responsible for general health and safety in public places.
All the Council’s cemeteries are checked. These are:
We also check all the eight closed churchyards we are responsible for.
The safety checks have been going on in our cemeteries on a regular basis for over five years. However stricter guidelines now mean that more of the memorials, which were previously tested and passed as being safe, are failing the safety test.
The grave owner or their next of kin are responsible for the memorial and have a duty to keep the memorial repaired and in a safe condition.
Each headstone is given a visual check to assess the condition of the memorial. It is then given a gentle ‘push-test’ to check that the stone is not in immediate danger of falling. If the stone does not move or show signs of instability during the test it is passed as safe. The checks are carried out by a trained officer who will make sure that the work is carried out carefully and with due respect. Each memorial tested will be recorded to indicate that the safety check has been carried out. The record will include the date, type and condition of the memorial and any action that was taken.
Once a headstone is found to be unsafe we have a duty of care to make sure that it is made safe immediately because the cemetery is a public place. Headstones that are in immediate danger of collapse or require work to make them safe will be secured using a memorial support and marked with a notice explaining to the owner what to do next. No memorials will be removed from the grave space as part of the testing. Where possible, we will write to grave owners as soon as possible to inform them where it has been necessary to support the memorial for safety reasons.
Please phone 0845 129 77 77 or 01298 28400 and speak to a member of staff. We will discuss with you arrangements for re-erecting your memorial safely.
You should NEVER try to re-erect the memorial yourself; this could be very dangerous and may result in serious injury to yourself and/or to members of the public.
Only professional memorial masons can carry out repair work on memorials in High Peaks’ cemeteries. Grave owners or their next of kin are responsible for having the memorial fixed in place safely and professionally.
We recommend that all memorials sited within our cemeteries are insured against all risks. Please check with your monumental mason or insurer to find out if repair work is covered.
Our immediate priority is to make sure that all our cemeteries are safe places for the public to enter. Every headstone failing the test will have a notice attached to it advising the owner what to do next. We will contact as many grave owners as possible whose memorials have failed the test. If we have not written to you it may be because we do not have an up-to-date record of your contact details.
This is unfortunately a common occurrence, as many of the graves are very old and grave owners have moved from the address we have recorded in the burial records.
Yes, we will be carrying out similar tests at regular intervals in the future, at least every five years. Because of this we recommend that your memorial is insured and is regularly and professionally checked and maintained by your memorial stonemason to ensure it is safely maintained.
We understand how upsetting it can be for families to see work being carried out on a memorial to a loved one and we want to help people deal with their unsafe memorials as quickly as possible. Anyone who wants to talk about what is happening or needs information can contact us by on the number given above. We will try to resolve their problem as soon as possible. Further inspections of our cemeteries will be ongoing for some time. In the meantime, members of the public are asked to keep to the paths where possible and to keep children under close supervision at all times.