A Bradford woman whose only child was crushed to death by a falling gravestone has commended the city's Council for being one of the first local authorities in the country to carry out safety checks after the tragedy.

Jeanette Powell's six-year-old son Reuben died three years ago while playing in a cemetery in Harrogate. She witnessed his horrific head injuries when the 5ft high gravestone was lifted from him.

This week Harrogate Council paid £33,000 compensation out-of-court to Mrs Powell and husband Richard but did not admit liability.

The tragedy triggered off nationwide safety checks in cemeteries but Bradford was one of the first local authorities to employ a memorial officer to do topple-tests of its 250,000 headstones and to carry out an emergency survey of them all.

Today Mrs Powell, who now lives in Hertfordshire, commended Bradford Council for its prompt action in carrying out safety checks and hoped other local authorities would follow its lead. She said: "I'm impressed with the speed at which Bradford responded after our tragedy. We've kept in touch with what local authorities are doing and are pleased that Bradford took the lead."

Bradford Council now spends £50,000 a year to keep the district's headstones safe and it could take five more years to carry out thorough safety tests on all of them.

Joan Ryder, Area Registrar of Deaths for Bradford, said there was still much legal confusion about who to blame if someone was hurt.

"Bradford decided two years ago to play safe and set about starting up a programme to inspect all the headstones and make safe any that needed attention," she said.