Memorial Safety Meeting in Cambs

[linkyjinx]

Is anyone going to this memorial safety meeting ? (article below)

It might be worth while for a family tree researcher to go along. I can't get there (I'm in Somerset) or I'd go myself to find out what they intend to do to the graveyards.  The council in Somerset laid flat/removed(destroyed) LOADS of graves when they implimented their health & safety policy in Sedgemoor...

ARTICLE:

Memorial Safety in Cemeteries (Cambridgeshire)

Memorials are erected at the head of graves as permanent reminders of those buried within.
Many people wrongly assume that memorials are permanent structures which are installed to high standards and therefore last forever without the need for any repair.

Unfortunately over recent years there have been a number of accidents in the United Kingdom caused by Memorials being unsafe, the accidents ranged from bruising and crush injuries to the fatality of a small child.

Cambridge City Council is working within the guidelines produced by the Institute of Cemetery and Cremation Managers (ICCM) and the Health & Safety Executive to ensure the memorials remain safe for the public visiting and those working in the cemetery.

Once memorials have been identified as posing a risk the City Council has to take action to reduce or eliminate the risk of injury based on a proper risk assessment, there are several options that can be employed depending upon the memorial and the risks. The Cemetery Officers will seek to trace relatives of the deceased to advise them of the action due to be taken prior to any testing and the responsibility of the relative to repair the memorial.

To provide further information on the Initiative the City Council has arranged an open day at Newmarket Road Cemetery on Sunday, October 2, 2005. Officers who manage the cemeteries will be available on the day together with a representative from the ICCM, an approved stonemason and a representative from the City Council insurers to provide information to the bereaved
and the public, and answer questions. The methods employed for testing the memorials will be demonstrated on the day, together with examples of remedial actions. The open day will be from 10am until 4pm adjacent to the Chapel.

If you have any questions relating to the open day or require further information but cannot attend, please contact a Cemetery Officer on 01954 780681.

article source:
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/housing-services/news-items/memorial-safety-in-cemeteries.en

Example of what they did it in Sedgemoor about 5-7 years ago  (photo taken 2005):



To see a larger picture click link below (I hope Cambs Council do a better job than this...)
http://steib-traveller.rootschat.net/images/burnham1.jpg

[AndrewMartin]

At about May/June time i went to Ely Cemetery to "check on the old folks" and noticed that a LOT of headstones and memorial stones were wrapped in yellow and black hazard 'tape' (the kind of plastic tape that is put across crime scenes).... i do mean a lot of them too.. everywhere i looked there was tape.  Having checked my relatives graves, i was relieved to find that none of them had tape wrapped on them although one of the stones from the early 1950s had fallen backwards, but laid flat and unbroken.

Im not sure of the fate of these stones. A lot of them tended to be quite tall old headstones or the really tall monument stones but if these are/were removed, it really would erase a lot of historical information from the cemetery.

[linkyjinx]

There's another Cemetery up the road from me in Highbridge - had the same hazzard tape you write of. I remember loads of grave stone like this - I remember thinking that there must have been an accident/chemical leak covering the whole graveyard, whole place was "tidied up" with most of the higher stones turned to rubble & removed.

Some of the bigger "ancestry" type info brokers or lottery companies should set up a graveyard restoration/maintenance charity before they are all gone!