A COUNCIL has bowed to pressure and suspended its controversial policy on testing if headstones are "dangerous".

In the meantime, all notices ordering relatives to get headstones repaired have been suspended.

An investigation has now been launched but council chiefs said they expected it would show they have acted appropriately.

Blackburn with Darwen Council acted over its topple testing procedures after scores of complaints.

Relatives are angry that more than 400 memorials at Pleasington Cemetery have been branded a health and safety risk.

Now experts from the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM) have been drafted in by the council to review whether it has acted properly.

But some residents and councillors said they thought the probe would find that the council had been "over the top".

Around 60 relatives were told of the investigation at a special meeting with councillors yesterday morning.Earlier this year, inspections carried out checks on headstones to see how they fared when pressure is applied equivalent to someone pulling themselves up from the ground with a memorial.

If headstones moved under the 35kg pressure, they were marked with stickers and in some cases had bands and stakes attached for support.

But there were questions raised over the amount of pressure used during testing, the quality of the foundations supplied by the council for the headstones and whether damage was actually caused by the topple testing.

At the meeting yesterday, Ron Dunn, from the ICCM, said the public outcry over the health and safety checks has prompted the investigation.

He said: "There are a lot unsafe memorials around the country and there have been six deaths in six years, mainly of children being crushed by falling headstones.

"Blackburn with Darwen Council therefore has a duty to make sure the cemetery is safe and is following national guidelines.

"If the testing has not been done to national guidelines, then the problem will be rectified.

"The investigation will look at all aspects including the original foundations.

"We will be asking to see council policy and specifications."

But Mick Ince, service supervisor for Blackburn with Darwen Bereavement Services who oversees work on Pleasington Cemetery, said he was confident the inquiry would find they had acted properly.

He said: "There is nothing wrong with our foundations or the pressure being applied during topple-testing.

"The workers have a palm-top computer linked to the machinery that tells where and at what pressure the headstone fails at, and none have come back with readings above 35kg or mentioning the foundations."

Coun Brian Gordon said he was backing the relatives and was pushing the council to answer questions.

He said: "I have been to look around the cemetery and I don't know how a lot of the headstones marked up could be pushed over by a child."

Coun Konrad Tapp backed Coun Gordon.

He said: "When the investigation has been done we will arrange another meeting to give all the information to relatives, hopefully to their satisfaction."

Resident Marie Whalley, who helped organise the meeting said: "It's a good turn-out, and fair-play to the people who've come to talk. They handled it very well considering they've not had much time to repair."

The grave of Eileen Eastham's husband Robert was one found to be "unsafe".

Mrs Eastham, from Darwen, said: "It has been done a lot more tastefully here than in some other places in the country where they're putting brightly coloured straps up.

"I'm cock-a-hoop about the response we've got from the meeting.

"Mr Dunn even came over to my husband's grave and said he didn't think it was a health and safety risk, so that's confirmed what I believed all along."

On Thursday alongside a story about the above meeting we published a picture of gravestones which had in fact been damaged at Fairwell Cemetery, Rossendale. The picture was incorrectly captioned as being Pleasington Cemetery which is operated by Blackburn with Darwen Council. We apologise to for the error.