A "TOPPLE tester" is to be used by Swindon Council to check the safety of cemetery memorials.

In the last 10 years four people have died in the UK as a result of gravestones falling on them.

Three were children most recently six-year-old Reuben Powell, who died in July last year when a 6ft memorial fell on him in a Harrogate cemetery.

Swindon Council is planning to ensure that a similar tragedy does not happen in the borough by starting a programme of tests and safety work.

It could lead to hundreds of headstones being laid flat as a precaution.

There are 18,000 gravestones and memorials in council-owned cemeteries in Swindon.

Councillors meeting last night on the Community, Culture and Recreation Commission heard that Swindon Services is planning to spend £840 on a Topple Tester.

The machine works by applying a 50kg force to the memorial or headstone to check its solidity.

If the memorial is found to be unsound, Swindon Council will require the person responsible for it to carry out remedial work.

If they cannot be found the work will be done by Swindon Services.

The council is also planning to take action to make any wobbly gravestones safe.

Swindon Council spokeswoman Hellen Barnes said: "The Topple Tester is a fairly straightforward structural testing device that will be used to test gravestones that are known to be loose.

"As part of a risk management programme, a sample of 20 per cent of Swindon gravestones will be taken to establish whether or not they are dangerous to the public.

"Gravestones that are found to be dangerous will be temporarily made safe, for example by laying them down or placing a fence around them until repairs or re-instalment can be carried out."

Kerry Conteh, nine, from Liverpool, was killed when a 5ft headstone fell on her in 1995.

And David Crossley, also nine, from Burnley, was killed when a double headstone weighing a quarter of a ton fell over.