County sets inspections to make sure cemetery monuments are safe

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If you have been a funeral director for any length of time you have found yourself in a cemetery on a beautiful summer day when after the formal committal service the family remains to visit and you see young children play on cemetery monuments.  However, as this archived CBS News article mentions, children have been killed when those monuments fall on them.

Powys County of Great Britain is now set to do something about that.  You can read this article from the Shropeshire Star where the county is set to begin an inspection program of county cemeteries in February.  According to the article, inspectors will give each monument one of three possible ratings:

• Category 1:  Unsafe and in need of immediate attention
• Category 2:  Unstable but unlikely to cause an immediate health and safety risk
• Catogory 3:  Stable and no action required

The article goes on to say what will happen with a Category 1 monument:  “A Category 1 memorial will be laid down or made safe by other means at the time of inspection. A red notice will be placed on the memorial/grave advising that the memorial is unsafe and providing details of how to contact the council.”

Here’s what will happen with a Category 2 monument:  “A Category 2 memorial will have an amber notice placed in a suitable position on the memorial stating that the memorial is unsafe and how to contact the council. If after the expiry of six months from the date of inspection the memorial has not been fixed it will be laid down or made safe by other methods as appropriate.”

Councillor Richard Church, Cabinet Member for a Safer Powys, made the following comment about the program, “We have to be sure that our cemeteries are a safe place to visit and any memorials that are potentially dangerous are made secure.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  This makes all the sense in the world. . . nobody wants someone to get hurt in a cemetery.  I’m also of the opinion that as insurance company loss prevention officers see this inspection program, we may be seeing more situations like this if a cemetery wants to continue to have insurance coverage.

The biggest issue that I see with the program and its potential expansion is the cost or repairing some of these monuments to a “safe” condition.  Once a large monument has lost its stability, it is not inexpensive to right that situation. . . . and many times a 100-year old monument will have no heirs to take care of the costs.  And, many cemeteries cannot afford the costs.

I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of permanent memorials for posterity sake.  However, the people in Powys County do show that having that mindset does incur some costs that may not be easy to fund.

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