“This grave is not up to code”

Man of Honour
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24 Sep 2005
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One of the strangest things I’ve seen in some time…


If the graves were that out of shape to the point of being a hazard, just laying them flat until repaired would have been a more acceptable solution. But pretty much every church in the country has loads of wonky / shonky gravestones, hundreds of years old, which nobody has an interest in disturbing… aside from perhaps the nefarious :eek: - some of those ‘stickered’ don’t look bad by those standards.

What were they thinking?!

Oh… I know… they weren’t thinking.
 
A typically poor thought out and disrespectful plan from a local government body who were dead set on doing this. They have really dug themselves a deep hole here and, no doubt, would like to bury this bad news six feet under. What on earth were they thinking? This may come back to haunt them in the wake of their actions.
 
A typically poor thought out and disrespectful plan from a local government body who were dead set on doing this. They have really dug themselves a deep hole here and, no doubt, would like to bury this bad news six feet under. What on earth were they thinking? This may come back to haunt them in the wake of their actions.

You have a grave sense of humour sir.
 
Is the land the grave sits on technically private land?

The graveyards are Council owned but the upkeep of the headstones are the responsibility of the families involved.

Its a kneejerk reaction to the incident where an 8 year old boy got killed by a falling headstone



If the graves were that out of shape to the point of being a hazard, just laying them flat until repaired would have been a more acceptable solution.

Apparently not as the families in this instance were upset about this solution as well albeit they had notices "hung" around the headstones instead of stuck on

Even leaving them standing with the notices hung around them have upset families


The stickers are crass but, where the owners are not known, I am not sure any solution would be deemed acceptable as there is always going to be someone finding upset where they can so the councils are on a lose/lose here.
 
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Why don't the council fix them? I know its cost, but if the graveyards are council owned, surely they have a responsibility too?
Because it can rapidly become exceptionally expensive, especially with the larger/fancier grave markers, and the same people that are getting upset about the council doing things like marking the gravestones as unsafe are going to be even more upset if the council attempt to fix it and it the marker gets damaged or breaks because of a crack etc

Basically there is no way the council win in this situation, as they don't have the money to spend potentially hundreds/thousands per thousands of grave stones, but they also have a responsibility to ensure the graveyard is safe.
 
The answer to your question is in the post right above yours:
Yes, but why cant the council take charge if there is nobody to contact about getting them repaired? I mean councils can find money for vanity projects that help nobody except their builder friends, why not a fund to re-erect gravestones?
 
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