Headstones to be checked for safety at cemetery

The checks are being carried out on nearly 3,500 memorials at Henley Road Cemetery

Headstones and memorials at a town's cemetery are being checked to make sure they are not at risk of falling over.

The structural and stability tests at Henley Road Cemetery, on All Hallows Road in Reading, are being carried out on nearly 3,500 memorials.

Reading Borough Council said where possible the registered owners of the memorial would be contacted by cemetery staff if action was needed or they would be marked with a notice urging the relatives of the deceased to make contact.

Testing at the 22-hectare (54-acre) site that serves the Berkshire town as its only crematorium and main cemetery is expected to be carried out into November.

The council said cemetery staff would be on the site during working hours to answer any questions and offer help and advice while the tests were being carried out.

The authority said the checks were needed "to ensure they do not pose a health and safety risk to anyone visiting or working at the cemetery".

Opened in 1923, the first burial on the site took place on 1 November 1927.

The tests are being carried out on memorials numbered:

• 9001–10866

• 11000–11458

• 11459–12586

Allotment land adjoining the cemetery designated as reserve cemetery ground is due to be returned to its original use as a cemetery, providing about 2,300 new graves.