Staff in Moray Council’s criminal justice team are being trained in the use of specialised equipment to reinstate fallen gravestones.

The training will enable them to supervise similar work which will be carried out by offenders who are made the subject of community payback orders by the courts.

The project will allow offenders to make a positive contribution to the community while learning useful skills.

It follows a successful bid to the Scottish Government for £10,000 from its project initiation fund.

The funding is being used to purchase the necessary equipment and specialist training from the Federation of Burial and Crematorium Authorities.

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The training, part of which is being undertaken in situ at Elgin cemetery, includes a three-and-a-half day course covering gantry construction, memorial lifting and the re-setting of gravestones.

Two of the council’s criminal justice team, Tish Richford and Mike McRitchie, have visited a similar project in Edinburgh which has been commended by Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill.

Reinstating fallen and vandalised headstones in Moray burial grounds is normally the responsibility of lair holders or their relatives.

However, where older headstones are involved it often proves impossible to trace the families of the deceased.

"The project in Edinburgh has been very well received by the public who see it as a fitting way for those on payback orders to put something back into the local community," said Tish.

"Fallen headstones are a regular occurrence in our cemeteries and re-erecting them will help offenders learn skills that might stand them in good stead in the future.

"Hopefully the Moray public will see this as a very worthwhile initiative from which everyone benefits."

(GK)