Families get cash for headstone work

Thousands of pounds have been given to 160 families in Sandwell after they were told to repair headstones on their loved ones' graves.

Sandwell Council has paid out £8,000 to families who had to secure and repair damaged headstones at cemeteries across the borough. The £50 "goodwill payments" were offered to reimburse dozens of families who had already paid for repairs after the council ordered the clean-up of hundreds of dangerous memorials which were thought to be unsafe.

The Express & Star revealed earlier this year that some people in Sandwell had to take out loans to make headstones at borough graveyards safe before the council announced it would be paying £40,000 to fix thousands of memorials for free.

It was then decided that people who had already paid would be reimbursed £50.

Sandwell's neighbourhood's chief Councillor Mahboob Hussain said that the gesture would be for people who had "heeded warnings over unsafe memorials".

In one case a 40-year-old woman ,who wished not to be named, said that her mother had been forced to borrow £270 to repair a grave belonging to a relative in Uplands Cemetery in Smethwick.

She said: "We have struggled to pay for the work to be done and we were put under a lot of pressure to get it done on time."

A report to Sandwell's neighbourhoods and community scrutiny panel, which will meet on Wednesday, December 9, reveals that 160 families came forward to claim the grant.

Councillor Mahboob Hussain, said: "All authorities had to carry out this work and we were the only local authority that decided to take responsibility and there were some people that paid had already paid for the work themselves.

Villagers in Wombourne in South Staffordshire protested when controversial topple tests were carried out on graves at St Benedict Biscop Church.

A change in Government guidelines has led to a new series of "visual" grave inspections.