A FIFTH of the 300,000 headstones in Glasgow's cemeteries are so unstable they pose ''an immediate danger'' to people paying their respects to loved ones, according to a new survey by the city council.
The scale of disrepair of 60,000 headstones has forced the council, which oversees 2000 burials a year, to produce a new code of practice for graveyards.
In future, lair holders will be obliged to use headstones with a 30-year guarantee and take out insurance cover against damage and vandalism.
Lair holders who fail to keep their plots safe will not be allowed to use them for further burials, meaning families could be separated after death.
The new rules are expected to be rubber-stamped by councillors next week and come into force later this year. They will affect fresh lair holders, and will not apply retrospectively.
John Conway, parks operations manager with Glasgow City Council, said a survey of the city's 33 municipal graveyards which started three months ago had already revealed a ''serious problem'' with fallen and unstable headstones.
He said: ''The insurance costs for people should not be expensive. Headstones built to parameters set for stonemasons should last 30 years, so there should not be a problem with that. It's primarily insurance against vandalism. But if people don't maintain a lair then they won't be allowed to have any more burials in it.''
The current cost of buying a council lair in perpetuity is (pounds) 550 for a Glasgow resident, or (pounds) 900 for a non-resident. Each lair is typically large enough to hold four coffins.
In theory, the price only pays for maintenance of the grass by the council - the upkeep of any headstone falls to the lair holder. However, in practice, it is the council, as the burial authority, which has a common law duty of care to any visitors to the cemetery, and is left picking up any bills for repairs.
A report going to the council's parks and facilities committee next week says a new code is needed to resolve conflicts over responsibility and ''ensure the longevity of a safe cemetery environment''.
The report blames poor construction, vandalism, and weather damage for the majority of the safety problems. The new code of practice means every future headstone design - including colour, weight, size, stone type and inscription - will have to be approved in advance by a registrar of cemeteries and crematoria.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article