Outraged at cost on graves

Relatives are distraught after more than 50 headstones in a Black Country cemetery have been earmarked for removal unless families cough up £200 to secure them.

They say they were not notified of any work needed until turning up at the Smethwick graveyard to find stickers and metal posts clamped to the stones.

Justine Newey, aged 19, said she was shocked to find her grandfather's headstone in Uplands Cemetery was one of those affected. Now she and other relatives are setting up a petition in protest at the move.

She said: "We've been told the stones are unsafe but my grandad died only a few years ago and my nan paid over £2,000 for the burial. Now she's being told she has to find another £200. In our opinion it is the concrete slabs underneath the stones that are unstable."

She said she phoned Sandwell Council to be told the supports would stay until families paid for them to be anchored properly.

She added that the stonemason she contacted said the council would remove the headstones after six months and they would be put in storage for a time before being destroyed, although this has been denied.

"The most upsetting part is the fact that the council didn't warn us they were doing this," she said. "The headstones look awful.

"And what about families who are not able to visit their relatives' graves as regularly as we are?"

Councillor Mahboob Hussain, Sandwell Council's cabinet member for neighbourhoods and housing, said the memorials had recently been inspected and those found to be insecure had been fixed upright with the help of a support, rather than laid flat.

He added: "The inspection was carried out in accordance with national guidelines. There is a notice at the entrance of the cemetery stating that testing is taking place and we have raised awareness of the issue through the press over a number of years.

"We do not write because of the thousands of graves involved and the fact that in the vast majority of cases we do not have an up to date address as families do not advise us when they move house."

He added the headstones would not be destroyed.

By Marion Brennan