Your correspondent, Edna Storey, should be aware that many of the headstones were not a danger before the council rushed in to apply the health and safety rules with a heavy hand.

You can rest assured that the testing now taking place in Darwen Eastern cemetery will find a much lower rate of failure because common sense has won the day.

Also, the majority of the failed headstones in the Darwen Old Cemetery mark burials which are dated before cremation was an option, but how sad it is to see a headstone flattened which marks the death of a 19-year-old killed in action in 1917.

He lost his life for us and deserves a fitting memorial. The burial grounds we see on Remembrance Sunday are in immaculate condition and so they should be.

Eileen Eastham, Milton Close, Darwen.