A PARISH council which caused uproar by ordering more than 100 unsafe gravestones in a West Somerset cemetery to be flattened is being asked to spend up to £20,000 to make them safe again.

Porlock parish councillors will debate the issue at their meeting on Wednesday (November 12) when they will also be recommended to set up a burials and memorials committee to review and oversee burial and memorial practices.

Residents were upset last month when they discovered headstones and memorials in the village’s Hawkcombe burial ground had been pushed flat.

The council ordered the work after a safety inspection revealed 177 headstones were either unsafe or loose.

However, when graves in the St Dubricius Churchyard were inspected, unsafe headstones were only marked and a warning notice placed at the entrance gate while the council sought permission from the Bath and Wells Diocese to take further action.

Councillors had been trying for months to contact any living relatives of those buried in Hawkcombe cemetery whose plots were affected, but managed to find only four families.

Parish clerk Jonathan Jones said since recent media coverage of the controversy, some families had now come forward with next of kin information, and some had directly contacted monumental masons to have their memorials fixed.

Mr Jones said a site meeting had also been arranged with the memorial masons to assess the works already carried out following concerns about the sensitivity of the issue, and to agree an approach and plan for reinstatement of all unsafe memorials, as the council originally intended.

He said the council was required by law to inspect memorials every five years, with loose headstones re-inspected annually, and carry out any safety work within 18 months.

Mr Jones said councillors could take £9,000 from several reserve funds but would need to consider their options for meeting the remaining cost.

He said some grant funding options had been explored but their strict criteria requirements had not been met, while others were being looked at, although the application process could take ‘a considerable amount of time’.