GRAVEYARD memorials are set to be tested to ensure they are not at risk of falling over.

Oxford City Council will carry out the inspections in Wolvercote Cemetery and St Sepulchre's Cemetery in Jericho over the autumn and winter.

It comes as part of a programme to check all the gravestones in Oxford are safe, which has been taking place over the last 13 years.

Laura Harlock, cemeteries manager for Oxford Direct Services, which will carry out the checks, said: "Memorials are sites of great personal importance to families and loved ones and we are conscious we need to do this work sensitively to respect that.

"If we find an unstable memorial we will do our utmost to contact the family concerned before it is repositioned.

"Whilst modern memorials are all installed to high safety standards, this has not always been the case.

"Older ones may have been poorly erected with little consideration for safety, or they may suffer from years of neglect.

"These may risk falling over and causing serious injury.

"Any work that we do to ensure memorials are safe and won't cause an accident will be carried out with due respect."

Before beginning the inspections, notices will be put up around the cemetery to inform grave owners, as well as members of the public.

Any memorial found to be unstable will be propped up with a wooden stake or laid down on the floor, if there is an imminent risk of they will fall over.

Previous inspections show that only a small percentage of the memorials are found to be unstable.