A GRANT scheme to help pay for the safe repair of gravestones has been deemed unaffordable by the council.
Roughly 200 gravestones remain face down in Wombwell Cemetery after up to 600 were laid to the ground in fear they may topple and cause injury.
Councils across the country have been laying down headstones since a six year old boy was killed by a falling stone in a Harrogate cemetery in 2000.
But Harrogate Council is now giving grants of up to £45 to families to help make safe the laid down stones.
And Friend of Wombwell Cemetery Ray Mangham says: “If they can do it, why can’t we?”
Harrogate council is also using unpaid labour provided by the courts to help work on unsafe graves.
Mr Mangham said: “We have asked about community service workers before and been told there are health and safety issues. But I say again, if Harrogate can do it, why can’t Barnsley?”
According to an article in last Friday’s Knaresborough Post, 1,138 grants have been awarded by Harrogate Council so far and a total of 6,438 memorials had been laid down.
Coun Dick Wraith said: “Several people have brought this to me. I have every sympathy I really do, especially with the older people. But Graves are not our property.
“We have been told it just isn’t feasible for us to do it. With the number of graves it would just be too costly.”
The council stress they only lay down graves as a last resort and always lay them carefully on wooden bearers. If a grave is unsafe, it is propped up first, a notice displayed on it, and 12 months allowed for repairs to be made before it is laid down.
Peter Hubbard, head of environmental protection and bereavement services, said: “This issue has been carefully considered in Barnsley, but contributing to the cost of repairing privately owned assets was not deemed to be a priority use of public resources in a tightly managed financial environment.
“To date the rate of failure of all headstones tested is running at 17percent. This is projected to equate to some 6,750 headstones in total. If all these failed, using the £45 grant regime as used at Harrogate, the council would have to find an additional £303,750 above current budget.”
