The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Headstone repair costs put pressure on councils
BILL: Volume of crumbling stones across country becoming risk to public safety
The cost of repairing crumbling headstones is heaping fresh financial pressure on cash-strapped local authorities.
Fifers will be charged more to bury their dead as the council struggles to pay to secure unstable headstones across the region.
Meanwhile Dundee City Council has revealed it is setting aside £70,000 for repairs in its cemeteries.
In Perth and Kinross, a new memorial inspector has been appointed to identify damaged stones.
The price of burial lairs in Fife is to go up by 8% over each of the next three years to help the local authority cover a £4 million bill for fixing up to 60,000 decaying stones over the next decade.
The hike, more than four times the rate of inflation, will take burial costs from £696 to £812 by March 2022 – the same as the average charged by other Scottish councils.
Fife Council senior manager Alan Paul said a balance had to be struck between the impact on families and ensuring public safety.
“These are our cemeteries and we have a duty of care,” he said.
A survey of Fife’s 115 council-run cemeteries was prompted by the death of eight-year-old Ciaran Williamson who was crushed by a falling tombstone in a Glasgow graveyard in 2015.
A young child was injured by an unstable headstone in Inverkeithing Cemetery the following year.
The survey found as many as 60% of stones were likely to be in poor condition and in need of urgent remedial action.
A prioritised programme of repair has been drawn up and dangerous headstones have been laid flat or fenced off. Work has already been completed at Inverkeithing and is ongoing at Methilmill and Cupar, East Wemyss and Kennoway cemeteries are next on the list of priorities.
The increase in burial costs is expected to generate an additional £160,000 for the council over the next three years.
Mr Paul said all of Scotland’s local authorities were taking similar steps but added: “The 115 burial grounds under Fife Council’s remit makes the logistics and scale of the programme in Fife more challenging than in many other location.”
Fife Council co-leader, SNP councillor David Alexander, said the work was vital. “We have 115 cemeteries and 40% to 60% of headstones are likely to be in poor condition,” he said.
“The cost of fixing individual stones isn’t that huge, it’s the sheer volume.”
Dundee City Council said it had repaired 178 memorials at risk of falling over each year since 2003.
Any dangerous headstone up to 1.5 metres tall has been dealt with and the authority now intends to provide a further £70,000 to help future efforts.
Kevin Cordell, convener of neighbourhood services, said: “This investment will allow an ongoing safety regime to operate across our cemeteries.
The cost of fixing individual stones isn’t that huge, it’s the sheer volume. DAVID ALEXANDER
Agravestone does not just mark the final resting place of a deceased person.
It is a focal point for family and friends, a place to go to contemplate a life well lived, to seek solace and to pay respects.
But the reality is that many thousands of Scottish graves lie unattended for a variety of reasons. The deceased may not have had a family, they may be the last in the line or their death so removed by time that the only vestige of their life left is the crumbling headstone bearing their name.
That is certainly the case in Fife where tens of thousands of forgotten gravestones are in a perilous state.
The local authority is responsible for more than 100 graveyards and is facing an eye-watering seven-figure repair bill for unstable and dangerous stones.
Fife Council is to raise burial charges as it looks to offset the costs. But the authority is not alone, councils across Scotland have been taking action for many years.
The tragic death in 2015 of a young boy who was crushed by a falling gravestone shows the danger of poorly maintained stones is real.
In the first instance, the onus should be on families to maintain and repair gravestones. But even when there are relatives in the picture, economic circumstance may prevent them from carrying out the necessary works.
Unfortunately, the likelihood is it is a burden that taxpayers may have to continue to shoulder.