I don’t want to imagine what it’s like to go and visit the grave of a friend or relative and discover the cooncil has slapped a gummy, gaudy information notice on it headed “Warning! this memorial has failed to meet safety standards.” People have called it disrespectful and I think that’s exactly the right word. It is. What were they thinking?

Glasgow City Council’s argument is they have no choice and are forced to put the warning stickers on gravestones when there are concerns about safety. They say they have a statutory duty to inspect headstones but that the maintenance is a matter for the owners, usually relatives. Applying the notices to the stones, they say, is an effective way to find the relatives and get the repairs done.

To some extent (but only some), I can see where the council is coming from, and we know the terrible background don’t we? The case of eight-year-old Ciaran Williamson, who died in 2015 when a stone in Craigton Cemetery in Cardonald fell on him. The fatal accident inquiry said the council didn’t have a proper inspection system to ensure the safety of graveyards and so the council said they would introduce one, which they did and it was the right thing to do.

But having a proper inspection regime doesn’t mean you have to put stickers on memorials to people’s friends and relatives. In the first place, couldn’t they have worded it in a more respectful way; why does it have to be so blunt? And why didn’t they consider a notice attached to a stake driven into the ground instead? That would have achieved the same end but would have avoided the sight of a cheap and nasty sticker, obviously slapped on, rippled, askew, with no care or thought about how it would look.

I also don’t think we should let Glasgow City Council away with the idea that it has no role to play in maintaining gravestones. This is technically and legally how it is, and a lot of the maintenance you see is done by volunteers: the Southern Necropolis in the Gorbals for example where most of the work is done by a friends group. I’ve met them and I’ve seen what they do and they’re brilliant. Greek Thomson is buried there and there’s a most beautiful, shaded circle in the centre of the place where they sometimes hold yoga and meditation sessions. Go and visit.

But the fact that local groups look after some cemeteries, and do a great job, shouldn’t mean we accept that all the council has to do is check whether a stone is steady and print off a sticker. In response to the furore over the stickers, Glasgow Council said unequivocally that headstone maintenance was not a service they provided and any repairs have to be paid for by the families. Sorry but no: there is an alternative, and a relatively simple way to fix the problem.

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It's already done in Edinburgh in fact, at the Grange cemetery for instance. Like a lot of other places, they’ve faced the issue of unstable stones but unlike Glasgow and some other councils which may end up dismantling or unearthing stones that are considered unsafe and laying them flat, Edinburgh Council has embraced the idea of rebuilding and restabilising stones and monuments, which is surely better for relatives and the graveyard. Will Glasgow keep on doing what they’re doing until every single gravestone is flat on the ground?

What makes the alternative in Edinburgh work is they’ve kept costs down by using the Community Payback Programme. They’ve trained a few staff to supervise but most of the work is done by people serving a community sentence; they come for free obviously because they’ve been ordered to give something back to society and the only cost is the materials: concrete, steel rods and so on. Hundreds of stones have been rebuilt or strengthened in Grange cemetery using this method and there’s absolutely nothing to prevent Glasgow Council doing the same thing.

I hope now, for a couple of reasons, that they will do so. The most important reason is it would avoid upsetting relatives who turn up at the cemetery to find one of the council’s grubby little stickers on their loved one’s headstone.

(Image: One of the stickers on a gravestone)

But it would also be an indication that the council understand that graveyards and cemeteries are important. I remember walking through the Necropolis, that great mortal city above the cathedral in Glasgow, with Michael Turnbull, author of The Glasgow Graveyard Guide. He pointed out the most interesting graves but he also told me what the great Victorian cemetery was supposed to be about: it was supposed to be a dignified place where people could walk arm in arm and meditate on death.

Our graveyards still serve that purpose for some, including me when a Morrissey mood overtakes me, but they are surprisingly modern places as well. As I said, the Southern Necropolis is used for yoga and meditation; they’ve also had recitals in there, and every day there are dog walkers, and cyclists, and runners. At this time of year, there may also be remembrance services at the war graves and memorials. My point: they are used, and they’re current, and they matter.

What Glasgow City Council, and other councils with similar sticker-based policies, need to do now is demonstrate they understand that. Stop the stickers. Look at what other methods could be used. And have a look at the Community Payback Programme as a cost-effective way of maintaining and restoring headstones. The friends and relatives will appreciate it, and it will show that the council knows it must treat graveyards with respect. Yes, that’s the word: respect.