Anger over headstones

I refer to the two articles relating to unsafe headstones in Sandwell cemeteries (Express & Star, February 4).

My wife and I were asked by letter to meet a council representative at Fallings Heath Cemetery about five years ago who would show us how unsafe the headstone was on my wife's parents' grave.

This was done by the lady pushing on the headstone with a force meter which recorded the force required to move the stone.

We were then informed that it was our responsibility to make the headstone safe or the council would take steps to do so.

The stone, as do many others at Fallings Heath, stood on rows of 3ft by 2ft paving slabs, provided by the council, which over the years had settled and gone out of level.

To stop the council attaching the ugly safety measures that they use, and the distress that these cause, we arranged to have the work done ourselves by Charles Hill in Wednesbury, who replaced the paving slabs with a 4in-thick concrete base with the headstone being dowelled into it, at a cost of £160.

So to now read that the council is to repair all 3,747 unsafe headstones free of charge makes us very angry.

I wonder, if I send the bill for the repair to Councillor Mahboob Hussain, will he oblige us with a refund?

Fred Noakes,

Park Hill, Wednesbury.