CEMETERIES staff are to carry out safety checks on all memorials and headstones in Bury, Radcliffe and Ramsbottom.

The council has announced plans for inspections in every cemetery to try to identify unsafe structures and remedy any problems found.

This could include the 'laying down' of headstones in danger of toppling over and even cordoning off memorials considered unsafe.

Bury's head of parks, countryside and customer services Neil Long said: "Although the responsibility for the maintenance of a memorial rests with the individual who was granted the right to place it, or their relatives, the Council does have a duty of care as the owner of the land.

"We take that duty very seriously and with the powers that we have as a burial authority, we will be taking such steps as we deem necessary to ensure public safety.

"Of course though, we will always try to bear in mind the sensitivity of those who have lost loved ones."