Gravestone safety check shock

Recorded delivery letters went to the owners of 272 graves this week advising them that their memorials constituted a danger.

The shock discovery follows the first phase of testing in the older part of the Turkey Road cemetery, just over half the 8,000 plots.

Rother council says the timing of the unwelcome Christmas news is unfortunate but that the authority has a responsibility to make the memorials safe.

Similar action at Rye cemetery caused public uproar. But Rother head of amenities Alwyn Roebuck on Monday showed the Observer a video of a professional consultant undertaking safety tests at Bexhill accompanied by a Rother officer.

In one instance a 5ft stone cross weighing an estimated one and a half hundredweight begins to topple after light hand pressure.

In another, the consultant has to grab at a weighty upright slab having only touched it with outstretched finger-tips.

Rother leader Cllr Graham Gubby has reviewed council policy on grave-testing with officers following the outcry at Rye. But, says Mr Roebuck, they came to the conclusion that the authority's only safe course of action was to keep to its policy.

The head of amenities said on Monday: "A batch of letters is due to go out today following inspections which we have just completed.

"As a result of that inspection, some of the memorials have been found to be dangerous and have been laid down."

He said Rother had commissioned consultants from Zurich Municipal Insurers to do the work after going out to tender.

Referring to the hand-testing process, he said: "It is a scheme written by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management. It is a scheme which has been widely adopted throughout the country and involves a manual push test. This is done by one person but there is always a Rother officer present to observe. Three staff members have been trained to Institute standard."

Some memorials fail because the metal dowels linking the upright to the base have rusted, others because the epoxy cement in the joint is weak.