More than 700 gravestones altered after safety inspection

Numerous families have been left devastated after a safety inspection at Peebles Cemetery resulted in more than 700 headstones being altered or taken down.

The Scottish Borders Council, who are responsible for 154 cemeteries, began the programme of safety checks in September which is scheduled to run for five years.

Inspectors spent five weeks testing almost one thousand eight-hundred memorials which were classed as either ‘stable’, ‘slight movement’ or ‘unsafe'.

Only those found to be in a dangerous condition were cordoned off and made safe.

The Council initially warned that only ‘old and large’ headstones would be tested, however, the checks actually resulted in dozens of small memorials also being taken apart and ‘socketed’.

The Council stand by the method that uses "a recognised approach which balances the cultural importance associated with these historic memorials and the need to keep our cemeteries safe for the public to visit."

Despite guidance stating that work would be undertaken with due respect and only when necessary, the heavy-handed testing regime has left numerous headstones broken and many families upset.