Concerns over unstable gravestones causing injury or even death to people in cemeteries are finally being heard by the Government, which has pledged to review the legislation and practice relating to burial and cemetery management. Deirdre Mason reports

It has taken a decade of solid campaigning, but at last official voices are acting on the Association of Burial Authorities' (ABA) concerns about unstable memorial stones injuring or even killing people in cemeteries. The Home Office, following a trouncing from the House of Commons Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs in April last year, has set up an advisory group, with representatives from burial authorities and other relevant organisations as well as from the Government. One of its first tasks will be to undertake a survey of the nation's cemeteries. Home Office minister Beverley Hughes, acknowledging the urgency, says: "The legal framework to regulate burial practice and procedure dates back to the 1850s. It is time we reviewed both the law and current practice relating to burial and cemetery management to ensure that the standards of service fulfil the expectations and needs of the public today."

On memorial stones specifically, the British Standards Institution has issued a consultation document for response by the end of this month. There has also been a heartening take-up of the best-practice manual produced jointly by the ABA and insurers Zurich Municipal last year, with nearly 500 copies sold so far. At the ABA, there is a new across-industry Memorial Safety Advisory Group composed of representatives from manufacturers, masons and cemetery managers, which met for the first time on 17 January this year. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which is responsible for local-authority-owned cemeteries, used European Week for Safety and Health last October to launch an awareness campaign for parents about the risks to children from unstable memorials. It has also supported a number of seminars run by burial association organisations on the whole issue of testing and stability of memorials. This is a good start, but until there are nationally agreed, binding standards, local authorities with responsibilities for cemeteries still have to make value judgements about risk, the standards required from masons, insurance levels, test methods used to check for stability, and whether or not to adopt the controversial practice of laying memorial stones flat. Although older monuments can topple if allowed to fall into disrepair, the main problem today is posed by the newer "lawn memorial", popular from the 1960s onwards. These have an upright slab slotted into a base and, according Sam Weller the ABA's chairman, are inherently unstable. "These are flat slabs standing on a very narrow base, and they do not penetrate into the ground. We recommend a one-piece memorial, with one third below ground and two-thirds showing," he says.
Over the last six years, falling gravestones have killed three children and one adult in the UK, including six-year-old Reuben Powell, killed in a Harrogate cemetery when a six-foot memorial stone fell on him. However, the problem is Europe-wide. During 1999, gales in France toppled memorial stones causing an incredible £500m of damage, and following a spate of injuries to cemetery employees in Germany, that country now tests its monuments annually for stability.

But testing itself has proved controversial, with some grave owners accusing local authorities in England of using undue force to test monument stability. In a 1999 case, the local government ombudsman ordered a council to make reparations. John Knapton, the professor of structural engineering at Newcastle University, who has advised the ABA, says that although a memorial should be able to withstand a force of at least 700N (70kg), an applied test of 500N (50kg) would be appropriate.
This is in line with the German standard, issued by the country's Federal Horticultural Guild. However, these regulations do not have the force of the Deutches Institut fur Nurmang standards (the equivalent of British Standards). Unfortunately, local authorities have found that many memorials will not stand up to this degree of force. Restormel DC has had its cemeteries audited recently for safety by Zurich Municipal's health and safety section. Testers used guidelines set out by the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM) and the ABA, relying on hand pressure. Even so, around 2,800 (20 per cent) of the memorials tested were found to need prompt remedial action. Bristol and North East Somerset Council has decided on a simpler way to test its memorials - a simple spirit level. Direct services development manager, Paul Naylor, says: "Regrettably, we will have to lay down on the ground any stones that present an immediate hazard, especially to children visiting the cemetery. Wherever possible, we will contact relatives of the deceased first, to let them know what we will be doing." This is one of the most sensitive issues to arise from cemetery safety. There is a question of heritage, and local historical societies have been alarmed at the practice of levelling gravestones. The Home Office says: "While we recognise the importance of ensuring that unsafe memorials do not cause any further deaths or serious injuries, we believe that the HSE could act with greater sensitivity towards the historical and cultural significance of such memorials. We recommend that the HSE has urgent discussions with English Heritage regarding memorial safety, and that it ensures that its inspectors are fully aware of the heritage and amenity value of cemeteries when taking decisions about enforcement."

A problem for the HSE is the inspectorate's chronic shortage of staff. It means that in practical terms, the HSE is reactive on cemetery safety. There has also been little or no pressure on local authorities to step up their investment in cemetery maintenance, with the disturbing results picked out in the environment committee report. The Local Authority Cemeteries Order 1977, has a blanket requirement that the local authority, as burial authority, must keep and maintain its cemeteries in good order, and that can have a subjective interpretation.

However, accidents to cemetery workers as well as the public have seen some councils having an excess of £100,000 on their insurance - a large sum to find from local revenues compared with annual budgets for cemetery maintenance in some cases. Many local authorities have been carrying out "best value" audits into their cemetery services, and inevitably, safety is part of these reviews. One such is Rushmoor DC, which embraces Aldershot in Hampshire. Rushmoor has three cemeteries, with around 35,000 burials to date. A couple of years ago, it set aside £2,500 annually to create a rolling programme of memorial safety. By April 1998, this had made 250 memorials safe, but there could be many more in need of attention. A survey, the council estimated, would cost £3,000. Rushmoor points to the need for revised regulations on fixing memorials: "In common with others, the council cemeteries have a high percentage of unsafe memorials and graves, which have accumulated over the years, reflecting inadequate fixing regulations in the past. These regulations need revising in the future to bring them in line with those recommended by NAMM." The full council has so far stopped short of acting on a performance review sub-committee recommendation that monumental masons who use the cemetery should be vetted, and a register of masons authorised to work in the council's cemeteries should be set up. However, monumental masons must fix all memorials to conform to NAMM's code of working practice. Tellingly, the council requires masons to have a minimum public liability insurance of £5m. Deirdre Mason is a freelance journalist and can be contacted by e-mail at: Masonwrites@aol.com The Association of Burial Authorities is based at Waterloo House, 155 Upper Street, London N1 1RA. Tel: 020 7288 2522.

The Guide to Management of Safety in Burial Grounds by Sam Weller and published by the Association of Burial Authorities is available from Zurich Municipal, Loss Control Services, Southwood Crescent, Farnborough, Hampshire Gu24 0NJ. Fax: 01252 376010. A4 loose-leaf binder. 112 pages. £85 (£75 to ABA members) and £5 p&p.

National standards "Local authorities recognise their duty of care and have instituted programmes of testing memorials for stability. Although this was originally done by visual inspection and assessment, followed by the "finger tip test" (pushing by hand to see whether there was any movement), more and more authorities are now moving to an objective instrumented push test to assess whether the gravestone is likely to topple at specified standardised forces. NAMM is also now recommending an instrumented push test as part of the stability assessment programme and the ABA, which has long been interested in issues of safety within cemeteries, is working on the implementation of national standards". Stephen Panke, managing director, Pierson Panke