BLACKBURN with Darwen Council is set to agree to pay for future health and safety tests on gravestones.

The controversial ‘topple testing’ procedure has caused outrage, with hundreds of headstones strapped up or laid on the floor with relatives told to foot the bill for repairs.

In the next few days the Government is expected to announce new guidelines for councils on how the procedure should be carried out.

Council bosses said they would wait for the announcement before finalising their new policy, but an MP said she expected the charges to be lifted in future cases, with Darwen eastern cemetery next to be tested.

Speaking in a Westminster debate Darwen and Rossendale MP Janet Anderson said: “The council tells me that when it topple-tests further graves, it will use in-house people who it has trained, and it will pay the costs of reinstatement.”

Yesterday she said she may have “jumped the gun” with her annoucement, but the council’s executive member for regeneration Alan Cottam confirmed the council was looking at paying for the repairs.

He said: “It’s not finalised yet, because we are waiting for guidance. But if we test a stone and it comes loose we will repair it. This is a good story. We are making a contribution to making it a more appealing place.”

Where gravestones have been strapped up or laid down the council will set them straight, Coun Cottam said, but would not pay retrospectively where relatives have already footed the bill.

In June we revealed an official report had found 15 per cent of stones checked in Pleasington Cemetery had been “incorrectly assessed”.

Peter Hunt, strategic director for regeneration and environment, said: "We are reviewing our policy and are waiting for national guidance due out this month.”

He said what the council did with the failing headstones was “still a question of debate”.

Justice Minister Bridget Prentice said: “The guidance will bring to an end the distressing sights of row upon row of uprooted or pushed-over gravestones, or those ranks of ugly metal stakes.

“I hope that it will also reduce the number of graves that are disfigured by the hazard tape and insensitive warning signs.”