Mystery of 443 gravestones

Rother District Council sent 731 letters to owners whose addresses were on file.

Of those 443 have been returned as 'not known at this address.'

Owners could not be found for the remainder so letters could not be sent.

The news follows last week's shock Observer report on council action at the cemetery.

There are between 10,000 and 12,000 memorials at the cemetery.

This week it emerged that Rother council has no clear idea what to do with those 400-plus flattened gravestones for which family members could not be traced.

The Observer asked if those memorials were destined to lay flat forever or if the council has plans to re-erect them.

A spokesman said: "Efforts will continue for some time to contact the owners of the gravestones that have been affected.

"Once all possible avenues have been explored an assessment will be made of the extent of the issue.

"Possible options will need to be considered and a report will be presented to cabinet later in the year to consider what, if any, further action needs to be taken."

Flattening headstones is preferable to risking children being injured, said Rother leader Graham Gubby this week.

He was responding to criticism in last week's Observer branding Rother's controversial policy of laying down loose headstones as 'insensitive.'

Cllr Gubby said: "Can you imagine, if we had not taken the action we had, what would happen, and what the impact on council tax would be , if we were faced with a compensation charge following the injury of a young boy or girl? The civil claim would be enormous."

"Every local authority is currently faced with the same dilemma and it comes down to a matter of judgement what risk local authorities wish to take."

The Observer has been contacted by families devastated after arriving at Bexhill Cemetery to find their loved-ones' headstones, and hundreds of others, flattened.

One local funeral director and stonemason said Rother should have taken a more sensitive approach to new government health and safety laws.

He compared the council's actions to that of Hastings, where loose headstones have been cordoned-off and relatives ordered to get them repaired.

Cllr Gubby responded: "Hastings Borough Council has chosen to carry a greater burden of risk than Rother and most other authorities and that's down to them. Hastings have cordoned off headstones, but yobs and vandals, and even wind, can remove those cordons.

"It's unfortunate that somebody in the business has decided to criticise us for protecting public safety.

"Stonemasons should be reinforcing the point that it is the customer who has the responsibility of looking after the memorial.

"Memorial owners need to take more responsibility. We were unable to contact 60-70 per cent of relatives for potentially-dangerous memorials we found.

"We have found that many of the newer stones have been stuck down, effectively glued, and not pinned properly like they used to be.

"Our policy on headstones will be frequently reviewed and it may come to the point where we, as other authorities have done, say we can no longer have upright headstones.

"I can assure you this was not a decision made in haste. We agonised over it for many months and looked at every course of action available because we knew it would be painful for relatives.

"In the end we decided not to take any more risk than we had to."