Peel Commissioners say they are not responsible for the upkeep of memorial benches but are encouraging residents to report any that are damaged.

It comes after a post featuring images of a broken memorial bench was circulated on local social media pages.

Vice-chair Sharon Lambert said the local authority’s staff do not carry out regular checks for damage, but can act when benches are no longer being maintained.

‘If somebody wants to put a memorial bench up, they would normally give us a plaque, which would be put onto the bench,’ she said.

‘We would put down the concrete for that to stay on, but the actual maintenance of that is the responsibility of the person who’s purchased the bench. It’s their plaque, so they are responsible for maintaining it.

‘Sometimes what happens is that people pass away themselves, and then it doesn’t get maintained. Therefore, we do rely on people reporting it to us because, even though there’s been a couple of posts on Facebook, we don’t have our staff sitting watching Facebook all the time.

‘If they ever see one, just log a job with the town hall and then we can at least take it away.’

She added that the commissioners can remove the plaque and pass it on to a relative or friend if they wish to keep it.

‘We do take the plaques off just in case there is a relative that wants to keep them,’ she said. ‘But we have hundreds and hundreds of plaques and it’s quite extensive.

‘We think it’s a lovely idea, but the maintenance of it is not the responsibility of Peel Town Commissioners. The benches can get really damaged, but it’s not our responsibility to keep them going.’