THOUSANDS of headstones on Teesside are to be restored after a council was forced to flatten them for safety reasons.

Middlesbrough Council will invest about a quarter of a million pounds in the restoration scheme, which will see about 2,500 headstones re-erected.

Work has started on the project, at Thorntree RC cemetery, in Middlesbrough, where 350 stones were laid flat on safety grounds last summer.

Each headstone will cost about £100 to restore.

Grants of £75 are also available to reimburse relatives who have carried out their own headstone repairs.

Cemeteries in Acklam, North Ormesby, Thorntree and Linthorpe will benefit from the work.

Councillor Barry Coppinger, the council's executive member for community safety and leisure, said: "This has been a difficult issue which the council has been at pains to handle sensitively.

"We found that many of the headstones failed a simple safety test and could fall over, posing a danger to the public. That wasn't the fault of the council, or of the families who had bought them. But it did leave us with a serious risk to the health and safety of people visiting the cemetery, so we had to act and lay the headstones flat.

"At the same time as protecting people's safety, we realised we had to support bereaved people, who naturally want the grave of a loved one well cared for. So we have decided to reinstate the headstones, and I am glad to say work is now under way.

"This is an issue which a lot of councils are going to have to face and it has raise questions over the safety of memorials and the current standards which apply. I hope the way we have resolved it makes a contribution to that debate."