Safety work to be carried out on unstable cemetery memorials

Safety works will be carried out on cemetery memorials identified by a council as unstable.

Earlier this year, Powys County Council oversaw a memorial inspection program across its cemeteries, with memorials assessed and placed into one of three categories:

Category 1 (Red): Unsafe and requiring immediate attention

Category 2 (Amber): Frail but not a risk in the short term

Category 3 (Green): Stable and no action required.

Notices

Category 1 monuments were made safe at the time of the inspection, and bilingual red notices were placed on them.

Category 2 monuments were marked with bilingual amber notices, to indicate that they were fragile and in need of repair.

If these monuments were not repaired within six months of the inspection, they would be leveled or protected in other appropriate ways.

This six month period has now passed. From November, the council’s contractor will begin revisiting Category 2 monuments to carry out this work.

Bilingual information signs will be placed at the entrances to the cemetery before work begins to inform visitors.

Repairs

Councilor Richard Church, Cabinet Member for Safer Powys, said: “We understand how important memorials are to families, and we want to give people every opportunity to carry out the necessary repairs.

“However, we must also ensure that our cemeteries remain safe places for everyone to visit.

“If a Category 2 monument has not been repaired, we will have no choice but to level it or otherwise make it safe.”

For more information, contact the Council’s Environmental Protection Service by [email protected] or calling 01938 551300.