AT last Councillor Alan Cottam has decided to respond to the many letters regarding headstone testing in Pleasington cemetery, Blackburn.

He insists that the motive of the council is only public safety.

If that is the case why could he not be bothered to respond to my claim, made in November letters, that many gravestones in tested areas are deemed safe when in reality they can be pushed over with one hand.

Only Coun Brian Gordon responded to my challenge, accompanied me to the cemetery and saw and accepted the truth of my assertions.

How can we have any faith therefore in the quality of the testing company.

Do councillors not bother to talk to each other in the public interest?

Coun Cottam goes on to say that after a period of time, unrepaired headstones will be laid flat. I do not think he is in touch with the reality of the situation.

In many cases the supposed weakness lies in the joint between the marble/stone plinth and the concrete footing in the ground.

The upright part of the headstone is securely fixed to its marble plinth. So if you try to lie it down, the marble plinth will then stand upright which will be even more dangerous.

Unless of course the council decides, in its usual high-handed way, to snap the upright off its base and damage it in the process, even though it's keen to remind us the headstones are our property!

Secondly, as anyone who is a regular visitor to the cemetery will tell you, when the stones are flattened and the grass cutters do their worst, those headstones will be like a hidden sheet of ice covered by clippings, waiting for the elderly to skid on them and break their legs.

Pleasington will resemble a war zone in the future and what is a pleasant, respectfully laid out cemetery will be no more.

So come on, enough of this political correctness, where the cure will be more dangerous than the perceived current danger.

The challenge remains, to get out of your office, pull on your wellies and see what is really happening to our cemetery.

JOHN COLLINS, Tower Road, Blackburn.