Parish council to test cemetery gravestones

A Telford parish council has agreed to pay the cost of checking  a church’s gravestones in the aftermath of the tragic death of a boy in Lancashire.

Wrockwardine Wood & Trench Parish Council heard that the cost of checking up to 800 memorial stones would be “expensive” but that it is something that has “got to be done.”

The parish council is responsible for the maintenance of the closed churchyard at Holy Trinity Church, in Wrockwardine Wood.

The council’s meeting on Monday (September 15) was told that safety checks are necessary following the death of a child in a freak accident in in July.

There is an official British standard for tests ensuring that memorials are stable.

The council’s clerk, Carol Binnington, reported that she had received interest from two bidders but that it had been a problem to find someone to carry out the checks. It is estimated that it could cost around £3,000.

“We have to do it every five years,” she said. “It has to be someone with proper qualifications and we only had two quotes.”

Councillor Shirley Reynolds (Trench ward), who chairs the parish authority, said: “It is expensive but it has got to be done.

“We need to make sure that they are safe.”

The council agreed to set up and earmarked fund for continued safety checks and add it to its budgeting process for future years.

In July PA and the BBC reported that a four year old boy named locally as Eli David was killed in a “freak accident” when a gravestone fell on him in Rawtenstall Cemetery in Lancashire.

Emergency services were called but Eli could not be saved, Lancashire Police said.

PA reported that his relative Donna Miller, had set up a fundraiser on Go Fund Me, with more than 400 people having donated nearly £9,000.

Ms Miller said her niece, Eli’s mother, Jessica, and husband Tommy, who have two other children, lost their son due to a “freak accident”.

Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.