Memorial safety inspections
South Tyneside Council intends to complete a safety inspection of the memorials within all it's cemeteries to assess their stability. The following questions and answers have been prepared to provide a better understanding and appreciation of why this important work is being carried out.
The council will make every effort to fulfil its legal responsibilities to ensure the cemetery remains safe, and where it is necessary to temporarily make safe, lay down, cordon off or remove a memorial for safety reasons then due care and sensitivity will be observed.
Responsibilities
All memorials are owned by and are the responsibility of the grave owner. However, the council has the obligation of making a memorial safe if it found to be in an unsafe/unstable condition. No memorials will be removed from the grave space.
It is essential that our cemeteries are safe places for people to come and pay their respects. However, to ensure that, we must be responsible and take action to deal with any memorial that poses a threat to the public – we sincerely hope people understand that. People have been hurt, even killed in the past, as a result of dangerous memorials and we cannot let that happen in South Tyneside.
We appreciate some people may be unhappy about what we are having to do and we apologise sincerely, if this causes any upset. We do understand how difficult it can be for families to see a memorial to a loved one laid flat and we want to help people deal with unsafe memorials as quickly as possible. Anyone who wants to discuss what is happening or who needs information, can always contact us and we attempt to resolve their problem as soon as possible.
Memorial Mason Registration Scheme
In conjunction with the inspection process, the council have introduced a Memorial Mason Registration Scheme. To register on the scheme memorial masons have to meet certain criteria laid down by the council and to ensure memorials are erected to national minimum standards. It is essential that families do not attempt to move or re-erect memorials that have been laid down. Only registered stonemasons can work on memorials within South Tyneside.
List of registered memorial masons
