Villagers hit out over graves

Distraught residents in a village near Wolverhampton who have accused council workers of desecrating grave stones have launched a petition demanding the work is stopped.

But the rector at St Benedict Biscop Church in Wombourne has defended local authority staff who have propped up hundreds of headstones with wooden stakes as part of a controversial health and safety exercise.

Families have been told they must stump up hundreds of pounds to pay for making the gravestones safe within two years or the memorials will be laid flat.

Angry villagers have accused the council of loosening the stones with heavy testing machinery, fearing further work in the churchyard will loosen dozens more stones which have been perfectly stable for decades.

Hairdresser Mary Coly, aged 58, of Planks Lane, Wombourne, said: "My husband David has been buried there for 10 years and his stone has never moved. If I'd suspected it of being likely to move, I would have had work done.

"I've got seven relatives in there and if all their headstones need work on them, it will be very expensive."

Marj Sutton, aged 63, said: "I've had a quote for £150 from a local company to put a gravestone right but there have been some people going around quoting £400.

"There are a lot of people who are very upset by this. They see it as desecration of a churchyard and vandalism of private property.

"A lady from Penn came to see her mother's grave and she was in tears."

Mrs Sutton's parents John and Emily Corns and her father's 10 brothers are all buried in the graveyard in Church Road.

Church rector Reverend Paul Brown said: "I have every confidence in South Staffordshire District Council who have been very careful in carrying out their duties. Some of the stones are dangerous.

"Memorials have been laid flat for many years if they were found to be unsafe, but this duty has recently passed from the church to the local council.

"The council is not using heavy duty machinery – it is using machinery required by national standards."

Steve Winterflood, deputy chief executive of South Staffordshire Council, said: "Every effort is being taken to complete the work with dignity and respect."

Graham Wilson is a regular visitor to his wife Thelma's black-marble headstone, which is now covered with yellow council labels saying it has failed a stability test. Mrs Wilson died of a brain haemorrhage in October 1996 and her gravestone reads 'Safe In God's Keeping'.

He has described the situation to the Express & Star as "stupid as well as heartbreaking".

Half of the neat marble headstones in the cemetery are anchored to stakes with plastic webbing and covered with a host of yellow labels from South Staffordshire Council.

The labels announce the memorials have failed a stability test. They will be left with these timber supports for two years.

The Wombourne experience is just part of a nationwide offensive to improve the safety of cemeteries.

All over Britain, bereaved relatives have been horrified to find their loved ones' gravestones either supported, laid flat or taped off like crime scenes.

In 2004 Bill Callaghan, chairman of the Health & Safety Executive, warned local council and other cemetery authorities they would be liable for any injuries caused by unsafe gravestones.

Two years later, after a flurry of bad headlines, Callaghan reminded everyone that: "Good communication and explanation, particularly for the families concerned, are vital."

In other parts of the Midlands, 50 headstones were scheduled to be removed unless relatives paid £200 to secure them in Smethwick and more than 1,000 gravestones have been earmarked for flattening on Cannock Chase.