A TOWN council’s check of as many as 6,000 grave sites to ensure memorials are safe and not in danger of falling on visitors needs to carried out “sensitively”.

Witney Town Council will next month begin the long process of assessing headstones in Tower Hill and Holy Trinity cemeteries.

Father Pat Broun, of Our Lady and St Hugh Roman Catholic Church, next to Tower Hill, said he hoped the work was carried out “sensitively”.

He said: “This is obviously work which has to be done but I think how it is done is what matters. It should be done as sensitively and thoughtfully as possible and recognise that it should not unnecessarily hurt or upset people.”

In 2009 the Ministry of Justice published new guidlines for local authorities, requiring them to maintain the sites.

The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management recommends checks are done every five years and all memorials between 50cm and 1.5m high to check that they are not at risk of toppling over.

The council said it had been planning to do the work since the beginning of the year and it was carrying it out now as part of a review of the town’s cemeteries.

It arose at the same time the authority took the decision not to close the gates at Tower Hill cemetery.

In June, the town council was criticised when gates at Tower Hill were closed after cars were reportedly driven over graves.

Nine children in the UK have been killed by falling headstones in recent years – none of them in Oxfordshire.

The town council is keen to stress it will not be ‘pushing’ on gravestones. Teleshores Ltd would do the safety assesment.

Claire Swan, facilities manager for the council, was unable to give a cost for the work as it was ‘commercially sensitive’ but said it was within the 2012/13 budget.

As both graveyards are full, responsibility for upkeep of the sites falls to the town council, while churchyards are maintained by the Oxford Diocese.

Mrs Swan said: “The upkeep of memorials is the responsibility of the family. We want people to understand that we are not going to be going around standing on the graves and pushing headstones over, which is why we will be demonstrating the procedure.

“If there is imminent danger of one toppling then we will lay it flat on the ground and contact the relatives.

“If one is identified as unstable then we will contact those responsible and they will have 10 weeks to carry out the work.

“The checking is going to take many months and will work on sections at a time. The company will create a report of all findings.

  • An open day for families will be held on September 3 at Tower Hill, with demonstrations of how the testing works between 10am and noon and 2pm and 4pm.