Town council urge review of headstone safety inspections

MELKSHAM Town Council has appealed to Wiltshire Council to review its process for testing the safety of headstones in its cemeteries.

The town council is asking that, where possible, families are informed first by letter or email that their relative’s headstone has been deemed ‘unsafe’ before the headstone is laid down flat.

The request comes after a number of families discovered headstones in Melksham Cemetery had been laid down flat after they failed safety tests carried out by council staff in May this year. Relatives criticised the lack of warning, saying that no notice was given prior to the inspections taking place.

Speaking about a meeting with one of the affected families, cllr Adrienne Westbrook said at last month’s town council community development meeting, “The family were upset as they didn’t believe that their relative’s gravestone was dangerous, but they were more upset about the process – I met them three weeks after the notification had gone up on the headstone, but Wiltshire Council had not written to them – that’s what they were upset about. It appeared that the yellow warning notices (placed on the headstones to inform the relatives of the council’s actions) had gone up before anyone was written to.”

Wiltshire Council was approached for comment on the current process for informing relatives, but had not responded by the time the paper went to print.