GRAVESTONES in Ilkley cemetery could pose a potential death trap for visitors despite a major drive by council bosses to test and repair them.

Four years after a six-year-old boy was crushed to death by a toppling gravestone in Harrogate, an Ilkley parish councillor fears the same thing could happen in Ilkley.

Despite a full-time officer being employed to check every single gravestone in the district, there are still some in the Ashlands Road cemetery which could be dangerous, said councillor Lexa Robinson.

More than 1,000 gravestones a year out of a total of 40,000 in the district are being repaired in a bid to keep cemetery visitors safe. The Harrogate tragedy in 2001, which occurred soon after a previous accident, prompted the council to establish a permanent programme of testing and repair.

But Coun Robinson said that there were still stones in Ilkley cemetery which could fall on people.

Coun Robinson said that although the council had been keeping the cemetery tidy, some stones still needed attention.

She said: "There are graves that have never had anything done to them. Some have been pushed down and fallen down over the years. There are not any that stand out dramatically but there are definitely some that need attention.

"There are a couple that even look as if they are going to topple over. I would like to know whether they have been tested."

A Bradford Council spokesperson said: "We are continuing to check all the headstones and memorials within Bradford Council Cemeteries and burial grounds to ensure they are all safe.

"We have started repair work on some of the headstones in Ilkley and are continuing our checks there.

"We want to make sure that cemeteries are safe and that we preserve our heritage. We do take the issue of memorial safety seriously and will continue to do all we can to ensure the safety of the cemetery users."

The cemetery danger has caught the council in the horns of dilemma. Some local authorities have solved the problem by laying down unsafe stones but this has led to a protest from families and other visitors.

Council officers said that laid down gravestones also posed the potential risk of injuring visitors by tripping them up.

For the past three years, a full-time memorial officer has been carrying out checks on gravestones in the district, using a special gun-like device to test each stone.

The machine exerts a pressure of 35kg on the stone and informs the tester whether it is in danger of toppling over.

If work needs to be carried out then the council traces the family to bill them for repairs, but if the family cannot be traced - which is often the case with older stones - the council foots the bill.

Coun Robinson, who has been looking after the cemetery for the last 11 years, has urged Bradford Council officers to liaise with her in order to resolve the problem.

Gravestones are repaired by drilling holes through and inserting steel rods which reach into the ground.

David Talbot, the council's head of parks and landscape service, said: "We are continuing to check all the headstones and memorials within Bradford Council cemeteries and burial grounds to ensure that they are all safe.

"If our memorial officer finds a headstone or memorial that is not safe then we would call a mason straight away to repair it. We have to put the safety of cemetery users first and if the mason is unable to make the headstone safe then we have to lay them down as a last resort."