Tain grave plot owners could face damage bills
THE private owners of plots vandalised at an Easter Ross cemetery could be responsible for paying to repair the damaged headstones.
Highland Council confirmed this week that lair holders are liable for damage to memorials, as the police revealed that a number of youths are due to be reported to the Children’s Panel in connection with the incident at the Old Cemetery in Tain.
Twelve headstones were pushed over or broken in the vandalism attack which is thought to have taken place late last month.
Police Scotland told the Journal: “We have identified those responsible and once enquiries are complete a report is likely to be submitted to the Children’s Panel. Given the age of the youths involved it wouldn’t be appropriate to go into more detail as you will appreciate.
“Our appreciation can be extended to everyone who got in touch in relation to the matter.”
Doubts have now come to the fore over who will pay for the headstone repairs.
Tain and Easter Ross councillor Alasdair Rhind said that the council should take responsibility for carrying out repairs.
He said: “We haven’t had a meeting yet with the council officer responsible, he’s on holiday at the moment. I’m hoping to have a meeting with him next week.
“People are disappointed with what’s happened, but we will do our best to resolve the situation if we can.
“Firstly, we have to get the agreement of the council to carry out the repairs. It’s not automatic that they will. It may be that the council will try and research families first to see if there’s any families that can do it.
“But I would hope that the council would go and do it. It won’t be a job that will be done overnight and it will be quite an expensive job to do. You would be talking thousands of pounds, I would think.
“The memorials that have been knocked down are the old-style memorials, in the olden days memorials were very much bigger than they are today, so they’re very heavy and there will be a lot work to get them back in place again.”
Highland Council made it clear that it expects the relatives of those buried at the cemetery whose headstones were vandalised to bear the burden.
A spokesperson said: “Staff checked the cemetery after the vandalism occurred and made safe any gravestones that were leaning and could have been a safety risk, by laying down the stones. The council’s Management Rules for Cemeteries states that the lair holder is liable for the risk of any damage by or to any memorial on the lair.”