A MASSIVE £65,000 bill has been totted up for the cost of repairing 1,300 unsafe gravestones in a council's cemeteries.

Nationally, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has raised concerns about the safety of the country's graveyards and cemeteries, following five deaths in as many years caused by unstable memorials.

As a result, Chester-le-Street District Council completed an inspection of 7,300 memorials within its cemeteries and found more than 1,500 were unsafe.

The headstones are the responsibility of the relatives of the person buried, but the council found it could only contact less than a quarter of those responsible for the headstones and will have to foot the bill for fixing the rest.

Memorials needing attention have either had notices stuck to them, saying the stones need repair, or have been laid flat on the ground.

The issue was due to be discussed by the council at its Green Communities Advisory and Review Panel meeting on Wednesday.

North Durham MP Kevan Jones said: "The problem Chester-le-Street is having, is a lot of the stones are historical, so they can't even find who owns them or even if relatives are still alive. Some of the grave stones are quite big structures and the council is liable for a duty of care, to ensure they are safe."

The burials officer's report states many of the unstable memorials are relatively new, less then 30 years old, despite the fact that they should stand for at least 30 years without repair.

Similar gravestone inspections have been taking place in other districts of the North-East.

At the cemetery in Tanfield, near Stanley, Derwentside District Council has stopped its workmen from cutting the grass because it says there are so many unsafe headstones.

The council, who recently took over the running of the cemetery, says it needs to try and contact families, who are responsible for the headstones, to make them safe.

But residents are unhappy about the cemetery, which they claim looks a mess. Orange plastic has been stuck on to gravestones and the grass is over-grown.

Mr Jones said he had received several complaints over the state of the cemetery.

A spokesman for Derwentside District Council said they were in talks with the church council to try and find a solution to the problem.

He said: "The gravestones are the property of the family and that's where the problem lies with getting them repaired.